Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones held a press conference on Friday officially announcing that Police Chief Ray Tarasovic will retire again next month.
Tarasovic a one time side kick to CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe, served in a civilian capacity in Charlotte but returned to Richmond and became chief of police in 2013.
Mayor Jones offered kind words regarding Tarasovic: “You’ve carried yourself like a young man: energetic, enthusiastic, committed and interested,” Mayor Jones said about the police chief. “He has had the community at the very heart of his work and I think that he has done a fine job.”
Tarasovic, who worked under Monroe, in Richmond retired from the RPD in 2008. Mayor Jones brought Tarasovic, 66, out of retirement and hired him as chief in February 2013.
Tarasovic said the decision to leave was not an easy one.
“There’s a lot of selfishness in this decision to leave. I want to begin the next part of my life. I want to be a better husband a better father and a better grandfather,” Tarasovic said. “These two years have been the most gratifying and rewarding of my career.”
While the city planned to post the police chief job opening, the mayor indicated he did not want to hire someone who planned to change direction. He said he anticipated being able to promote from within the Richmond Police Department.
“Whoever is going to be our chief has got to have a strong commitment to community policing. I might venture to say that we have not had some of the problems that other cities have had because of our connection to the community,” Jones said. “We are not looking to change courses, we are looking to make sure that we continue the same kind of progress that we have. And those persons are on the team. So that’s what we are looking to do, to keep this good thing going.”
The mayor conceded while homicides were up last year, all other city crimes stats were down. The mayor also said he would be opened to putting body cameras on Richmond Police officers.
3 comments:
Hopefully Rodney, our "Phoenix" will follow suit.
Phoenix? More like our albatross!
RayRay and his philosophy of policing did irreparable harm to CMPD.
Unfortunately Rodney operates using the same philosophy.
Which is: "Lead" by using fear and intimidation.
Put nothing in writing.
Surround yourself with sycophants who owe you for their promotions.
Put people you have promoted in positions that you then use to consolidate your hold on CMPD....I.e., Internal Affairs.
He has turned CMPD into a corrupt, dysfunctional organization with no moral compass.
Morale is non existent.
I have even heard he has threatened this Blog owner with legal action if he posts anything derogatory about Rodney or CMPD.
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