‘Hello, I must be going’
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 01:09 p.m., November 29, 2007
Updated 01:09 p.m., November 29, 2007
Well, Emporia had a police chief — at least, a police chief-elect — for a week. But Clark Morrow changed his mind and decided to stay in Olathe.
Disappointing as it was, Morrow’s entrance and quick exit had a slapstick quality about it and brought to mind the Groucho Marx song quoted above.
Why did Morrow change his mind? We’ll never know for sure. Morrow went out of his way to leave the impression that his decision had nothing to do with second thoughts about Emporia.
“Absolutely everybody I met in the city and the police department were just terrific, and I had been very excited about coming down there,” he told The Gazette.
But he said, “I had a family issue come up over the holiday I thought I had covered already before this move to Emporia. But it came up, and it was something that we had to address here.”
Family does come first and the details are nobody else’s business.
What hurts a bit is that Emporia has lost a chance to get some of its own back from Olathe and the Kansas City area in general. For years, Emporia has trained police officers and given them experience only to see some of the best of them lured away by the higher salaries in Johnson County. Sometimes it seems that Emporia is just a farm team for the bigger, richer departments, a collection of promising rookies waiting for their call to The Show.
While being poached by the big departments is a bit flattering, it is also costly and causes turnover problems the Emporia Police Department would just as soon do without.
That turnover is a problem for the next chief, whoever that is, and the city government. It may be one of the issues considered as the city and county continue to study the possibility of law-enforcement consolidation.
And Morrow? We wish him well. He seemed a good fit for the city, and he probably would have done a fine job.
Emporia will get a new police chief — probably sooner than later.
Will the new chief be a second choice?
No. The next chief will be a new first choice.
hawks422 (anonymous) says...
It appears that Mr. Morrow did his research after the fact. It is well known the City has limited funds at best to help out the next Chief and also a true lack of support from City Commison to run a police department in an effective manner. This is the true reason the city is unable to lure qualified candidates to the City of Emporia's Police Department. Any candidate comes to realize after they do their own research about the position of Chief in Emporia with the lack of funds and support from above, decides career suicide is not in their best interest.
November 29, 2007 at 2:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justthinkin (anonymous) says...
Why do people think the lack of City Commission support is limited to the Police Department, or the surprisingly unmentioned Fire Department. Read the article about the health insurance. Seems to me the City Commission doesn't support any of its employees. That would be in pay and benefits.
I'd like to challenge the Gazette to do a comparitive study of the units supported by local taxes. Let's see how the City compares to the County and the School District & the Health Department (tax dollars), and Newman Hospital (County owned) in raises & employer supported benefits (health insurance contributions as well as deductible levels) for the past - say 10 years. Numbers speak for themselves. Let's see what the numbers say. justthinkin!
November 29, 2007 at 7:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ks_farmboy (anonymous) says...
emporia needs some new blood. i hope they dont pick someone that is already in the department. mr. morrow would have been great, because he would of come from a department with new equipment and money. he would of fought for the money to put into the police department. their equipment is 6-7 years old and they are required to put their lifes on the line with it. i hope that mr. zimmerman will see that there is a problem and it needs attention. not only with the police department, but with the city in general. mr. commons did nothing for us but collect a paycheck.
November 29, 2007 at 7:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gazette_reader (anonymous) says...
Kelley writes: Sometimes it seems that Emporia is just a farm team for the bigger, richer departments, a collection of promising rookies waiting for their call to The Show.
This is true for so many industries and so many towns of this size. Consider what happens to successful newspaper reporters, television anchors, Division II football coaches, regional state school university administrators. Small and mid-sized cities and schools are often stepping stones. Sometimes, though, you get people who realize that stepping stone is actually the right foundation and a good fit.
November 30, 2007 at 1:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )