WHATEVER HAS BEEN GOING ON at the Emporia Police Department, the aftershocks are likely to be felt for months to come.
City Manager Matt Zimmerman confirmed Wednesday morning that Deputy Chief Mike Williams is no longer a city employee. Zimmerman didn’t say whether Williams had resigned or been fired, but he did say that Williams had been on paid suspension for three weeks before he and the city parted ways.
Williams’ departure comes amid a flurry of rumors of serious problems in the police department — problems apparently predating Gary Smith’s hiring as police chief last year. The rumors will not be repeated here because, at the moment, there is no way of assessing just which rumors — if any — are likely to be true. The simple act of repeating the rumors could cast doubt on the honesty of blameless officers.
It is worth noting, however, that none of the current rumors casts any doubt on Smith’s performance or behavior.
Will the department lose more officers? Are criminal charges possible? No one in a position to know is saying anything.
The departure of the department’s second in command was the dropping of the first shoe.
Right now, there is no way of telling how many legs this critter has.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
mochalove (anonymous) says...
This was an absolutely pointless "news story." Gossip....
March 26, 2009 at 4:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jaxson (anonymous) says...
Where did all of the comments to the original article go????
March 26, 2009 at 5:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
br5409 (anonymous) says...
must of had to much truth to it
March 26, 2009 at 7:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
glarson (anonymous) says...
The comments are back and moved to a news forum.
Sorry, but I had to enroll my son in high school last night and didn't have time to babysit the thread, so the comments were disabled overnight.
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor
March 27, 2009 at 6:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
Ha ha Gwen! I'm sure you have a life even if others don't believe it. You seem to do a pretty good job staying on top of things.
March 27, 2009 at 9:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
intheknow (anonymous) says...
Hey Gwen, just for your info, Why was Officer Williams the one that was just let go from the PD seen driving a tow truck today for Williams Towing! Funny the connection there..... things that make you go hummmmmm check into that for us Gwen we all would like to know...
March 27, 2009 at 3:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
homewrecker (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
March 27, 2009 at 8:04 p.m. ( permalink )
justthinkin (anonymous) says...
Gwen, I appreciate that you have a personal life & that you don't let the Gazette overtake your personal life. But congratulations are also in order.... as you probably realize, by moving comments to a forum, it effectively kills the comments.... which it is obvious the Gazette wanted to happen.
March 30, 2009 at 9:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
fastreader (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
March 30, 2009 at 10:24 p.m. ( permalink )
glarson (anonymous) says...
The decision to move comments to a news forum is an objective one. When a thread reaches 50 comments, it is closed out and moved to a news forum.
Moving to a forum doesn't not always kill the discussion. Take a quick look right now: http://www.emporiagazette.com/forums/...
and you'll see that some of the smoking ban forums have topped 200 comments. And, if you were to add ALL the smoking ban threads together that are in the news forum, you'd have well more than 1,000 comments, probably closer to 2,000.
I would venture to guess that, for whatever reason, those choosing to actively participate in comments these days care more for the smoking ban debate than other topics. Give it a week and that may change.
And, fastreader, although some people do contact us questioning comments, I've heard from no one in regard to these threads.
Gwen
March 31, 2009 at 5:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )