Three finalists, two from out of town and one from Columbus, attempted to sway the Columbus City Council into appointing them the new police chief.
Curtis Brame of North Chicago, Ill., interim Police Chief Selvain McQueen of Columbus; and Robert Spinks of Sequim, Wash., participated in interviews Thursday in front of the council, mayor and about 30 community members. Candidates interviewed in alphabetical order.
The council will meet at 5 p.m. Monday to decide who will be the next police chief, Mayor Robert Smith announced after the interview sessions.
Curtis Brame
Brame sees the Columbus police chief position as a calling, he said.
And the most important part of being a police chief “is having passion for the job and for people that you work for.”
Brame also touched on his budget experience and said he has experience investigating homicides. He said he has an 80 percent success rate in solving homicides.
The patrol division is the backbone of a police department; he said, and McQueen and Spinks agreed.
“Those are the people out there working, the eyes and ears,” Brame said. “They are the ones that will get out there and help the people. You can’t do it without patrol.”
Brame’s Whistleblower situation came up during the interview. Brame filed a complaint against the city of North Chicago, the city’s mayor and the police chief in 2009. The complaint, under the Whistleblower Act, alleges the chief “retaliated against him for disclosing information to the mayor concerning what (Brame) believes was criminal activity committed by the chief,” according to a court document.
“Sometimes not reporting crime is just as bad as committing crime,” Brame said, noting he felt ethically and morally obligated to report the incident and it is a crime in Illinois to not report an incident.
After reading online news articles, some of which mentioned the Whistleblower case, and reading online comments from citizens, he said he felt his “professional integrity was questioned.”
Brame has more than 2 1/2 decades of law enforcement experience and started his career with the North Chicago Police Department in 1985. He rose through the ranks from patrol officer to deputy chief. He served as the department’s deputy chief from 2001-2005 and is Support Services Division commander.
Selvain McQueen
McQueen said his strengths are working under seven chiefs and being in the city for almost 2 1/2 decades.
“I’ve taken what worked for those chiefs and incorporated that into what I do,” he said.
As far as his weakness, he said sometimes he doesn’t know “when to quit.”
“I don’t know when to go home,” he said.
McQueen said his management style is that he wants the officers in the CPD to buy in. “You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.”
If selected, he plans to hold the job for as long as “I’m being productive and my health doesn’t fail.”
McQueen said he has been highly visible, transparent with the media and citizens, and displayed a hard work ethic while serving as interim chief.
Like Brame, McQueen wasn’t spared the hard questions.
Councilmen asked about a more than decade-old investigation of the area’s Crime Stoppers unit. McQueen was involved with the unit at the tine.
Donald Freshour, who was police chief at the time of the scandal, pleaded guilty in 1999 to using Crime Stoppers to steal money.
McQueen said he was cleared in investigations and had no involvement with the scandal.
McQueen compared his vested interest in the city to that of a mother and her newborn baby.
“I refuse to allow the citizens of Columbus to fall into the hands of people that I do not know,” McQueen said. “I love this city, and I feel I have a rapport with the citizenry of Columbus. I’m raising children here, and I have a property interest vested.”
McQueen said he has more than a 50 percent solve rate for homicides but the CPD needs about 15 to 20 more officers.
He also wants to restart DARE — Drug Abuse Resistance Education — a program geared toward school-aged children.
He also noted there is a misconception that residents don’t trust the police department.
“We have people who are law-abiding citizens and they call us,” he said, taking the opportunity to tout community policing.
“My main thing is the police department can’t solve these things by itself. It’ll never happen,” he said. “Community policing is the cornerstone of my policing philosophy … Without the community we’re all lost.”
McQueen, former head of the Columbus Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, has been interim police chief since July.
Robert Spinks
Spinks said all three finalists know how to be a police officer, but he thinks he will be a better leader. If he is hired, he said he will come in and listen, make himself available and integrate himself into the community.
“I think a lot of it is your leadership style, and I think that’s what I offer. Unlike anyone else, you don’t have to train me to be a police chief; I already know how to do that,” he said.
Spinks referred to himself throughout the interview as a coach and the police department as a football team. When asked how long he planned to stay, he said he did not intend to come and be the “agent of change” and then leave. He plans to stay in Columbus for the remainder of his career. “I have no intent to come here and then go to another police department. And I will sign a contract to that.”
Spinks, like Brame, acknowledged local media stories and blogs.
He also addressed reports from his hometown newspaper, The Peninsula Daily News
A June 17, 2010, article in the newspaper quoted a city official describing Spinks as “bombastic.”
The term was brought up early, by Councilman Charlie Box from Ward 3, and often, by Spinks. But he continued to refer to himself as “gregarious” and “outgoing” instead.
He said he spent Thursday walking through the city and talking to people. He is impressed with the city having Mississippi University for Women, economic development and diversity.
Spinks said the city’s churches are a potential asset for the city in preventing crime.
“You have 85 churches, and I bring that up because often overlooked is the faith-based community when it comes to crime prevention,” he said. “If you can mobilize 85 churches, you can probably snuff out a lot of crime.”
Box said he likes that Spinks is “innovative and into the latest technology,” and Spinks said one idea is to bring the latest computer software into police vehicles to allow officers to file police reports from their vehicles.
“In essence, you want to give your police officer and investigators the opportunity to work smarter,” he said.
Spinks said his success rate in solving homicides is 100 percent.
In closing, Spinks acknowledged he is the out-of-town guy and if he becomes chief “that is a cross I’m going to have to bear,” considering McQueen is a local candidate. But he said he believes he and McQueen could work together. He again used the analogy of a football team and said the head coach needs assistant coaches.
Spinks said he has about 30 years of experience in public service. He worked as Sequim police chief from February 2005 to June 2010. Spinks previously served as police chief in Milton-Freewater, Ore., from 1997-2001 and as an undersheriff in Benton County, Ore.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.