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To the editor:
As a retired NYPD lieutenant who had some positive communication with the Mollen Commission (“The Dirty Thirty” in Harlem), I commend the new NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, for her proactive steps to straighten out some of the crooked lines in the Police Department.
In less than 2 months on the job she has replaced almost half of the high-ranking chiefs and commissioners on the job. But I don’t like her promotion of John Chell, a commander who is known for using social media to defend some officers about whom he should probably have said nothing or found them at fault. His shooting of a suspect in a stolen car in 2008 cost the city $2.5 million when the jury found his shooting intentional, not accidental, as Chell claimed.
Tisch’s new guidelines for police chases, 25 percent of which have ended in collisions, injuries or property damage, are long overdue, and I would like to see the restrictions go further, including preventing dangerous and reckless pursuits even for suspects of violent crimes.
Is the life of a child (or anyone) crossing the street worth the pursuit of an armed robber resulting from a police chase? Of course not. All high speed chases should be prohibited.
Michael J. Gorman
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