Happy Easter & Happy Pesach Holidays! Great upbeat article here: _For First Time Since 1993, Asbury Park Gets a Police Chief - New York Times_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/08njpeople.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) April 8, 2007 Law Enforcement For First Time Since 1993, Asbury Park Gets a Police Chief By _JILL P. CAPUZZO_ (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JILL P. CAPUZZO&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JILL P. CAPUZZO&inline=nyt-per) Asbury Park CRUISING through the neighborhoods here, a 2002 black Chevy Impala stirs an immediate reaction. It is not the expected response by those who recognize an unmarked police car -- choosing to stop at the yellow light perhaps, or scurrying away from a known drug corner. Instead, it is a warm greeting directed at the driver of the car. "Hey, Chief, nice to see you here!" one woman shouted from the window of her car, parked outside a housing project. "I like the sound of that," said Mark Kinmon, still adjusting to his new title as chief of the Asbury Park Police Department. Being named chief in March came as a big relief to Mr. Kinmon, a 17-year veteran of the force, and was a welcome change for the rest of the department and the residents of this shore city, which has not had a police chief since 1993. Like many other cities eager to inject a business management style into policing and concerned that their forces had become too entrenched in department politics and union allegiances, Asbury Park experimented with hiring an outside civilian to run the Police Department. Here, at least, the experiment did not go so well. In 14 years, there were five civilian police directors in charge of the department. The last one, L. Louis Jordan, left in December 2005 after months of turmoil within the department. "We went from the worst to the best," said Detective Gene Dello, the department’s top union representative, referring to the Jordan reign and Kinmon promotion. "Prior, we had a problem with abuse of sick time. Now, the officers are not only coming to work, they're working extra." After Mr. Jordan left, talk about re-establishing the position of chief began, and Mr. Kinmon, who had risen to the rank of deputy chief, seemed a clear choice. During the 16 months he was being considered for the job, the city saw a spike in murders and the concrete signs of long-promised redevelopment. "No one can say that the time Mark was being evaluated wasn't a challenging time in our community," Asbury Park's city manager, Terence J. Reidy, said at the chief’s March 10 swearing-in ceremony. "The city has turned a corner in a positive way, and it is the right time to name a chief for Asbury Park." By hiring a chief from within the ranks, Mr. Reidy said he was trying to establish stability in the department while "sending a message that when you sign up as a rookie, if you do a good job, someday you could be chief." At first glance, Mr. Kinmon, 39, might not seem the obvious choice to lead a department of 89 officers in a city in which 62 percent of the population is black. For starters, he is white. Then there is his preternaturally youthful appearance. James Q. Roberts, a security officer for the city’s Housing Authority, said Chief Kinmon's race was not an issue among black residents. "It's not so much him being a white guy," said Mr. Roberts, who as a young man spent time in jail for fighting and gang violence and said Mr. Kinmon helped set him straight. "For any major crime, the chief is always on the scene. He's earned people’s respect." After graduating from Howell High School, Mr. Kinmon worked for two years as a corrections officer at the Monmouth County Jail before joining the Asbury Park police in 1990. His wife, Karen, is a bookkeeper for a hair salon, and his son, Craig, is a senior at Howell High. Until recently, Chief Kinmon, a marathon runner, regularly bicycled to work, a 16-mile trek from Howell. "I could never see myself as the kind of person to stop cars all day," he said. "I'm an active person and this is an active town. It's a perfect fit for me." While Asbury Park's waterfront and downtown are exploding with new housing and commercial development, many neighborhoods still languish. In an effort to bridge this widening gap, Chief Kinmon has been working with the new Police Athletic League to develop programs for young people, offering everything from boxing to hair-braiding classes and a summer youth week to introduce students to law enforcement as a career. "We don't want to keep coming up to the corner and seeing these kids and having to put handcuffs on them and bring them to jail," Chief Kinmon said. "We'd much rather pick them up and bring them to the basketball court."
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