Philly's former top cop continues to have a rough ride in Miami, where he was criticized recently for driving a Lexus SUV, free of charge, for about a year. Now comes this headline from the Miami New Times, an alternative weekly.
"John Timoney, America's Worst Cop."
The story says that while Timoney gets paid $214,000 a year, he's not much around.
"During four years and nine months in office, Timoney has been out of town for at least 138 days — not counting vacation. During his 30 jaunts to places like Belfast and Los Angeles, he has stayed in the Wilshire Grand and the Mandarin Oriental. Cost to taxpayers: more than $28,000."
All the info was culled from 200 pages of reimbursement forms, hotel bills, and other receipts, the story says.
We say: Thank goodness for Florida's fantastic open records law.
To read the story, go here:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-09-20/news/john-timoney-america-s-worst-cop/
Comments (3)
Love those passionate but wholly amateurish articles written by America's journalistic pit bulls who wile away at our entertainment weeklies. I have had the pleasure to live in 4 cities in the last 7 years and I can say that this is some of the most earnestly off base writing that exists in this great country of ours. Heck, one former stop, Dallas, even elected one of these muckrakers as Mayor (grant it, they have a weak mayor system there). It seems this writer devised an entire journalistic theme based on her desire to work the word peripatetic into a sentence. Anyway, I am pretty sure that Timoney was grated a travel budget by someone other than himself and that his travel is similar to other Chiefs in his cohort. And as an Irishman, I am sure he just needed some time out of the sun.
Posted by bob | September 25, 2007 5:52 PM
Posted on September 25, 2007 17:52
When Timoney came to Philly, he did much to raise the profile of a department on the decline. He brought Highway Patrol back to full strength and gave commanders more leeway with how they handled their units. But he also allowed for a lot of corruption and brutality to pass unchecked on his watch as well. He care nothing about the underlying racial tension and disparity in punishment for officers, and allowed several commanders to come back into good graces after doing things the average person could be buried in jail for. Bottom line, he's garbage just like the tow he works in now.
Posted by Lawrence | September 26, 2007 2:16 AM
Posted on September 26, 2007 02:16
This is interesting. What is it with former Philly police chief? Willie Williams was run out of Los Angeles, as well. It's pretty obvious the skills that work in Philly don't necessarily translate to other Metro areas, with their own sets of political agendas.
Posted by John M | September 26, 2007 10:30 AM
Posted on September 26, 2007 10:30