When Chief Tuffey was traipsing around the city with his reorganization plan dog-and-pony, I asked a question at the meeting held in Arbor Hill.
I reminded the Chief that some years ago during his brother's stint in that office, the Albany Police Department stole my car (a loss for which I have never been reimbursed). The APD had actually had it towed and bollixed up the paperwork so that it could not be found. When I received a huge storage fee bill from one of the city's favored towing companies six months later, I went to the APD and complained to Chief Tuffey.
In recounting this tale at the Arbor Hill meeting, I noted that in pursuing my quest for compensation, I had repeated meetings with the Chief of Police. However, each time, the Chief had a different name. And, as what goes around comes around, we're back at "Tuffey".
My point on the reorganization plan was made when I noted that I have had interaction with police agencies large and small all over North America and the British Isles and I have never encountered such a bizarre example of leadership turmoil. It cannot be healthy for the organization. As far as Chief Tuffey's reorganization, of what benefit could it possibly be if it was just another transitory paroxysm passing for an assertion of leadership that will sooner rather than later be again interrupted by a change of same?
Chief Tuffey, as we all know, has a very assertive and positive approach toward things and assured the assemblage that he was going to be around for a while.
Well, now he is being criticized for the results of this accretion of barely-healed scar tissue that is the consequence of the Mayor's treating the Chief's office as a scab at which he cannot stop picking.
So, to the Times Union and all of the Chief's critics, you are free to quote me as saying, as Stephen Colbert often does: "Mr. Mayor, you, sir, are on notice."
