The front page of today’s WashPo Metro section was a big puff piece on PWC Police Chief “Good Time” Charlie Deane. In it, they inadvertently make the case that Deane’s time has come and gone:
When Deane joined the force 38 years ago, Prince William was a white farming community that considered itself part of central Virginia. But as Deane rose through the ranks, Prince William rose, too. Swept into Northern Virginia against the will of many old-timers, it has become one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, with a vibrant biotechnology corridor and a diverse, upwardly mobile population.
Of course in the article, the WashPo tries to stoke the flames of conflict over the county’s anti-illegal alien ordinance and tries to make that the crux of the story. I’ve long had problems with the way that Chief Deane runs the PWC Police, many of which have nothing to do with or are only tangential to the immigration debate. There is the issue of why PWC still doesn’t have cameras in police cars, even when an entire new fleet of cars is coming on-line. In my view, this is a vital tool to ensure the safety and security of those who wear the police uniform. Then there is the issue of the level of commitment that some of his officers have shown with regard to enforcing the law.
Deane won’t say how much longer he will remain chief. It is certainly not the job he walked into 20 years ago when Prince William was a sleepier place, with less consternation. He never wanted his standing to depend on political popularity, but he is learning to live with the times.
“I’ve successfully not satisfied elements on both sides,” Deane said of the immigration squabbles. “Maybe that’s the right place to be.”
Or maybe that just means that almost everyone is dissatisfied with the job you are currently doing. I have to laugh with regard to the comment of how “He never wanted his standing to depend on political popularity” as for as long as I can remember, his top priority has always been garnering good PR (with this WashPo story being the latest evidence of that.) And the “sleepier place, with less consternation” description? Well, I think that may be a euphemism for less public scrutiny.
Now that Deane is 62 and eligible for retirement, I suggest that he take that option so that PWC can begin a nationwide search for a new chief who is up to the challenge of transforming the police force to meet the needs of this county – and its officers – in the 21st century.
Filed under: Prince William County Politics
The chief’s title is Chief Charles T. Deane. How can you be taken seriously when using the stupid name ‘Good Time Charlie”
You are overlooking the fact that most people in Prince William County have great respect for Chief Deane. A small band of like-minded people who aren’t getting their own way are attempting a smear campaign to try and destroy an official who has served the county with distinction.
Shame on those involved. That is politics at its nastiest. Real men attack issues. Wimps attack character. Ball-less cretins lie about people to assassinate character. There is a lot of that going on in Prince William County.
And you are overlooking the fact that most people in Prince William County do not have more than a passing experience with Chief Deane or his police dept. I, on the other hand, have much deeper insight based upon my position in my community and the dealings that I and others I work with have had with them.
If you go back and re-read my post, you will see that my biggest beefs with Deane & Co. are not even related to immigration enforcement, but rather to lack of enforcement of more basic laws and lack of knowledge as to the law itself.
I have outlined a number of issues here, yet you simply latch onto the nickname “Good Time Charlie” (which comes from the chief’s love of good PR that is evidenced by this very article.) You, sir (or m’am as the case may be given you posted on here elsewhere under the name “Fire-n-ice chick”), are the one who refuses to engage in a debate on the issues and merits here and resort to name calling beyond the simple nickname that I used.
That said, I received more fodder over the weekend with regard to Deane & Co.
Friday night, there was an incident in a neighboring community that spilled over into mine and then moved on to a third location. The police that were present in my community had to be poked and prodded to act when they should have taken the initiative themselves at the get go and put an end to the situation then and there.
This is the second time in about two years that something of this nature has happened and the county police never lifted a finger to apprehend anyone even when people were still present milling about. Why they don’t call in buses and round up the lot of them or at least cite people for trespassing or loitering, I don’t know. This comes on top of a situation a few months ago where police were called to respond to a somewhat major incident that escalated out of people playing basketball in a public street who refused to move for passing cars. Our patrol service that we hired was present as well and filed an extensive report with us on it. When we received our monthly police incident report detailing all the reported incidents in the area, it was not among them. However, there were plenty of reports on there about ticketing cars in the Wal-Mart parking lot and responding to calls about barking dogs.
This makes me wonder whether the reported drop in crime in the county is truly attributable to an actual drop or is just the result of police not filing incident reports.
Other recent incidents involving the police include boats and trailers on public roads that they have been called in to ticket, but did not. First, they said they couldn’t do anything about it. Then, after the county ordinance was pointed out to them, they claimed there had to be signs posted at the entries to the community. After it was pointed out to them that those signs were already present, they went and finally asked the people to move these boats and trailers. Suffice it to say, it took approximately four phone calls to get the police to finally issue a ticket — something they should have done in the first place.
It is becoming increasingly frustrating dealing with the county police and many times it is like pulling teeth just to get them to do their basic jobs. To give you an idea of public sentiment — we raised our HOA fees this year by $10 per month so we could hire a patrol service since we did not feel that the police were doing their job. Do you know how many complaints we received about the $10 increase? None.
It is very apparent that the PWC police under Chief Deane are not following the Giuliani method of crime prevention. Too often, they are letting what they consider to be the “little things” slide and that only creates breeding grounds for bigger problems.
Chief Deane has not brought his own police department into the 21rst century. He was against in-car police cameras for the longest time even though most police departments came to the conclusion they were needed. Only when he could raise the cost of enforcing the illegal immigrant resolution, which he is not on board with, did he use the issue of the cameras as an obstacle to enforcing the resolution.
Chief Deane’s own police department does not reflect diversity nor does it track crimes like other police departments.
As a former employee I can say a lot of things about the Dept. and Chief Deane. The Dept. itself is a great department to work for thanks to the regular patrol officers and Detectives. Its the officers that make it great, not the leadership (trust me). The problem with the Dept. is that we have a Chief that has been the Chief for over 20 freakin years and in law enforcement for almost 40. That is entirely to long, exspecially to be Chief. Somebody above noted Deane with being on the side of PR. I can say from personal experience that he is only about PR and PR only. Chief Deane is not a cops cop, he is a politician. He has been a politician for years. I believe he has forgotten the true meaning of being a Police Officer. He has been in the game way to long and he should off retired at 55.