Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Fulwood hastens his exit Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Fulwood hastens his exit \SH Surprise follows listing of finalists \BY Brian Reilly and Margaret Rankin \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Metropolitan Police Chief Isaac Fulwood Jr. will quit tomorrow, ending a three-year tenure that was marked by record murder rates, officer discontent and biting congressional criticism of the department. Chief Fulwood, who announced his retirement in September, had said he would stay on until a replacement was hired. But city officials are still looking for a successor, and no reason was given yesterday for Chief Fulwood's sudden departure. The announcement came a day after city officials said they had narrowed their list of finalists for the chief's job to seven, four of whom have backgrounds in the Metropolitan Police Department. City officials said that since Chief Fulwood announced his retirement at a tearful ceremony in September, he has been adamant that Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly select a successor familiar with the city. He could not be reached for comment last night, and it was unclear if his decision to quit was related to the list of finalists for his job. Mayoral spokesman Vada Manager said there was nothing unusual about the chief's announcement. Chief Fulwood is taking over Mrs. Kelly's anti-crime youth initiative, and Mr. Manager said yesterday's announcement only means he can move to his new job sooner. "The mayor's eager to have him over there, and Chief Fulwood is eager to get things started. We're still on track in getting a new chief," Mr. Manager said. When he announced the list of police chief finalists Tuesday, City Administrator Robert Mallett said he expects a new chief to be on board by Dec. 1. In the meantime, Assistant Chief Addison Davis will serve as acting chief of the 4,500-member department. Assistant Chief Melvin High, head of patrol operations, is considered second in command but was not made acting chief because he is a finalist for the permanent position. The next chief will take over a department criticized by Congress for its seeming inability to control the city's violent crimes, short on reliable equipment, demoralized by three years without raises, and with a record number of officers under criminal investigation. Rank-and-file officers are threatening a sickout, possibly as early as this Halloween weekend, to protest the stalemate in their contract negotiations. The Fraternal Order of Police has not condoned any work actions but said it will participate in a demonstration outside the chief's Nov. 7 retirement dinner. "The membership's frustration has been directed towards Chief Fulwood mainly because he has failed to secure a pay raise and adequate equipment for his officers during his tenure as chief of police," said Officer Andre Lewis, chairman of the FOP's labor committee. "The perception has been that he was so dedicated to the mayor that he failed to fulfill his obligation to the men and women of the department." The next chief will run the police in the "murder capital of the world." When he took over in August 1989, Chief Fulwood said he would resign if he failed to stem the city's rising homicide rate within a year. But it was not until this year that the rate began to drop: By noon yesterday, there had been 381 homicides in the city this year, compared with 395 at the same time a year ago. "Chief Fulwood had the potential to be one of the greatest chiefs in the department's history," said Lt. Lowell Duckett, president of the Black Police Caucus. "Time will tell whether or not he accomplished the goals he set out to achieve." Gruesome and highly publicized attacks in the past year, such as the fatal beating of 22-year-old Abbey McCloskey and the rape of an 80-year-old woman in one week on Capitol Hill, renewed calls for the death penalty in the city. Congress got involved after an aide to Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Democrat, was shot to death on Capitol Hill in December. District voters will vote on a death-penalty referendum next week because Mr. Shelby included the initiative in the city's congressionally approved budget this year. Internal affairs investigators, meanwhile, are looking into the most charges ever filed against city officers. The U.S. Attorney's Office has indicted a record 30 Metropolitan Police officers this year. Investigators are also probing the May theft of at least 40 weapons from the department's property division. The theft has been called an inside job, and police officials have said thousands of other guns in department custody might be missing. The department has been crippled by chronic shortages of resources. It is always short of cars despite the recent purchase of more than 100 vehicles, and on several days this summer more than half of the department's patrol cars were out of service. Most department offices lack touch-tone phones, and portable phones are such a rarity that investigators often borrow them from reporters at crime scenes. Lt. Duckett said the chief is leaving several aspects of the department in poor condition. "Our training process has been destroyed and recruiting compromised, as is evident by the number of officers arrested or investigated for criminal activity," he said. "Some will miss him; some will not." But Chief Fulwood has been widely praised for speeding the implementation of more foot patrols in all seven city police districts. The foot patrols are part of the Community Empowerment Policing project, which aims to prevent more crimes and to add social work to the skills of many officers. The chief has also been an ardent spokesman for gun control, decrying lax laws in neighboring states that he says allow criminals to buy carloads of weapons and bring them into the District. * Vincent McCraw contributed to this report. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM