Police Commissioner To Face Tough Tasks

When City Manager Robert W. Healy Selects Cambridge's first police commissioner sometime in the next two weeks, the victor will have little time to sit back and savor his appointment.

Instead, the person holding the department's highest post will be bombarded with pressing matters from both inside and outside the station, starting with a thorough overhaul of the department's top personnel, says City Councillor Edward N. Cyr.

The new commissioner will be working with a fresh core of leaders because four of the department's six highest-ranking members are retiring this year, Cyr says.

"The police department is going through a fundamental reorganization, as the it will lose Chief Anthony G. Paolillo and three of the department's five captains," Cyr says. "It will be the new commissioner's challenge to assemble a new leadership team, and to develop support from within the department."

Cyr says the turnover will compound the departmental friction which presently plagues the force.

"Right now there are a number of conflicts from within the department, starting with the generation gap," Cyr says. "The department has been run by one older group for a number of years."

"And the women aren't happy either--not one woman is a superior officer, and they won't even take the test to become one because they know they don't have a chance," he says.

"Add to that the Black officers and the non-Cambridge natives, and you have a disjointed group of officers who don't trust each other," Cyr says. "Right now we need someone to breathe life, vigor and camaraderie into the department so that we have a shared vision. An outsider will be the most capable to handle such internal problems simply because he will be fresh and without favortism."

City Councillor William H. Walsh, however, says that a commissioner brought in from another city will lack the necessary control over the officers which a new chief would provide.

"No one has shown me what a commissioner can do that a chief can't do," Walsh ways. "All the title will do is provide the illusion of having a more capable figurehead--and the people will believe it. But the officers won't. They will want to answer to a superior officer."

Walsh says that the commissioner's difficulties will extend into community relations, specifically regarding the department's current problems with Blacks, Hispanics and the youth.

"Who will provide a better link to the community?" Walsh says. "A commissioner from Minnesota or California or a policeman who has matured through the ranks and who knows the Cambridge community from experience?"

Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Mark H. Moore, who served on the professional advisory panel which interviewed the all-male group of nine finalists for the post earlier this month, says the new leader will likely be able to overcome the initial transition period in a short period of time.

"While a commissioner coming from the outside is good because he won't have any strong preconceptions," Moore said, "he won't know off the bat who can be relied upon inside the department, and he won't know very much about the needs of the community. But, given the high quality of the candidates we interviewed a few weeks ago, I am convinced that the new commissioner will easily overcome these adversities."

A number of officers, including action Chief Joseph Granger, refused to comment on the upcoming responsibilities of the new commissioner. Chief Antony G. Paolillo, who will retire in April and is now recovering from heart surgery, could not be reached for comment