Longtime Niagara Falls Police Det. Frank Coney last week threw his hat into the ring, entering the increasingly crowded field of contenders looking to be the department's next chief.
In a letter to mayor-elect Vince Anello, Coney asked to be considered for the position, and attached his substantial resume.
"I'm serious about the job, and think I can bring a lot to the table from a policeman's perspective," he told the Reporter.
Theoretically, Coney has one advantage over most of the other candidates -- he actually lives in Niagara Falls, as is required for department heads under the city charter.
And Anello has stated that he believes all department heads should live in the city.
Capt. Frank Granto lives in Lewiston, Lt. Ernie Palmer lives in Youngstown and Lt. John Chella resides in Cheektowaga. All three have expressed an interest in the chief's post.
The current chief, Chris Carlin, claims to live in a $45,000 two-bedroom Cape Cod on 30th Street that he bought with aid from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development after being appointed by Mayor Irene Elia in 2000.
But a check of the NFPD's Personnel Master File indicates he lives in Ransomville, a fact backed up by copies of his credit union statements obtained by the Reporter that list a Lake Road, Ransomville, address.
The HUD money, by the way, is made available to law enforcement officers specifically to encourage them to live in the communities they police.
To qualify for the aid, police officers are required to pledge to live in the home they're buying for at least three years.
Unlike the other candidates, Coney has lived in Niagara Falls for years, occupying the same modest 83rd Street home where he and his wife, Louise, raised their three now-grown children.
A 34-year department veteran, he has served nearly all his career on the detective squad, where his specialty has been homicide investigation.
He has become known from Rochester to Buffalo for his ability to crack tough cases, and will be featured on an upcoming episode of the Canadian television program "72 Hours" for his work in finally bringing murderer and serial sex offender Billy Shrubsall to justice.
Speaking of homicides, the number of unsolved ones has jumped drastically in the nearly four years since Carlin became chief and appointed Soltys chief of detectives.
Between 1980 and 2000, there were 55 murders here, just five of which went unsolved. By contrast, in the last year alone, three of the city's eight murders remain unsolved and a ninth unsolved death has yet to be classified as a homicide despite considerable evidence indicating it was.
Speaking last week to a number of recently retired detectives and top brass, the consensus was that the micromanagement by both chiefs and the assignment of investigators with backgrounds unrelated to homicide are a big part of the problem.
Whoever gets the chief's job, he will be facing a drastic manpower shortage with the expected retirement of more than 20 officers around the first of the year.
Currently, there are around 125 officers on the force, down from nearly 160 when Elia took office.
This near abandonment of the NFPD by the administration led to the unprecedented use of state police, Niagara County Sheriff's deputies and parks police to patrol city streets following a still-unsolved double homicide on Pine Avenue this past summer.
The spate of retirements can be linked directly to the dismally low morale at the Public Safety Building, a situation that led the police unions to break with a long tradition of political neutrality and endorse Anello in the mayoral race.
Of necessity, Anello must choose a candidate who can re-establish the esprit de corps within the department, make do with severely limited resources and find creative ways to work with the city, state and federal governments to increase staffing levels to at least minimal standards.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that there are so many qualified candidates willing to take on the task.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 18 2003 |