If the other two candidates for Albany police chief are as good as Dan Hendrickson, the city will be in good shape no matter which of the three finalists eventually gets the job.
Albany announced the finalists Monday. Hendricksen is a captain with the Corvallis police department. He has led National Guard troops from Oregon in Iraq, serving with great distinction, and as a juror I have watched him give testimony in a drug trial. He’s a makes a very good impression, thoroughly competent and professional. The other two are Mario Lattanzio, an assistant police chief in Mesa, Ariz., and Jim Peterson, an assistant chief in Pocatello, Idaho.
The city didn’t say whether any of Albany’s second rank of police managers applied. If they didn’t, they probably figured there was no point. Chief Ed Boyd, who is retiring after seven years in the job, came to Albany from Salem, and the chief before him, Joe Simon, was from Washington state. His predecessor, too, was hired from out of town. But city managers don’t always go out of town for their chiefs. Corvallis now has a chief who started as a patrolman and spent his entire career there.
The ideal would be to find an experienced manager of people and budgets who also has plenty of local knowledge as a member of the community. And there, we may luck out. Police officers often live outside of the towns where they work. And when Lt. Col. Hendrickson’s Guard battalion returned from Iraq in 2005, the paper listed Albany as his home town. (hh)
Next Albany chief may be local
Albany announced the finalists Monday. Hendricksen is a captain with the Corvallis police department. He has led National Guard troops from Oregon in Iraq, serving with great distinction, and as a juror I have watched him give testimony in a drug trial. He’s a makes a very good impression, thoroughly competent and professional. The other two are Mario Lattanzio, an assistant police chief in Mesa, Ariz., and Jim Peterson, an assistant chief in Pocatello, Idaho.
The city didn’t say whether any of Albany’s second rank of police managers applied. If they didn’t, they probably figured there was no point. Chief Ed Boyd, who is retiring after seven years in the job, came to Albany from Salem, and the chief before him, Joe Simon, was from Washington state. His predecessor, too, was hired from out of town. But city managers don’t always go out of town for their chiefs. Corvallis now has a chief who started as a patrolman and spent his entire career there.
The ideal would be to find an experienced manager of people and budgets who also has plenty of local knowledge as a member of the community. And there, we may luck out. Police officers often live outside of the towns where they work. And when Lt. Col. Hendrickson’s Guard battalion returned from Iraq in 2005, the paper listed Albany as his home town. (hh)
Tags: Albany police, Chief candidates, Hendrickson, Lattanzio, Peterson