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Tag: police chief

  • Police Chief Quits Job After Cocaine Arrest

    Police Chief Quits Job After Cocaine Arrest

    Michael Coppola was accused of buying cocaine and attempting to ship it through the post office. 

    A New Jersey police chief has resigned after investigators say that he bought cocaine and had it shipped to his post office box. 

    Michael Coppola, 43, was chief of the Palisades Interstate Parkway police department from 2014 until he resigned on August 15.

    According to NJ.com, Coppola was charged with attempting to possess cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia after investigators found that he was ordering cocaine online.

    They delivered a package containing “imitation cocaine” to Coppola’s post office box, and Coppola was arrested during a traffic stop shortly after picking up the package. He is due in court later this week.

    Coppola’s arrest and resignation are the latest controversies for the Palisades Interstate Parkway police department. The department has about 25 officers and is in charge of patrolling an 11-mile stretch of highway, something that many people believe is unnecessary. 

    “There is no need for a force to patrol an 11-mile stretch of roadway,” said Declan O’Scanlon, a Republican who serves on the New Jersey state senate. “Other departments can cover that area with no increase in manpower. Let’s be done with it.”

    Calls to disband the department have intensified after an investigation into the department showed many questionable practices. Coppola rewarded cops who made the most traffic stops with meal allowances, better parking spots and newer vehicles.

    The department’s officers engaged in police chases that violated state policy, and Coppola used a company that he owned to provide technology services to the department. 

    All of this was revealed in a report launched by state attorney general Gurbir Grewal that was released last month. It is not clear whether the investigation into Coppola’s purchase of cocaine was part of the investigations undertaken in writing the report. 

    However, O’Scanlon said that Coppola is the latest person to be part of department leadership that “has been fatally flawed” for years.”

    “The ticket quotas. The rewards for writing tickets. That should not go on in any police department, let alone one that is not needed. Every revelation I read screams at me that it’s time to dissolve this force. There is no reason for it. It’s victimizing the people it is supposed to be protecting,” he said.

    Last year, data indicated that cocaine use was rising for the first time in almost ten years. In addition, the drug is becoming more dangerous as it is laced with fentanyl.

    In New York City the problem is so severe that the health department issued a warning about cocaine laced with opioids. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Police Chief Allegedly Overdosed On Drugs Stolen From Evidence Room

    Police Chief Allegedly Overdosed On Drugs Stolen From Evidence Room

    The 35-year-old died two months after being appointed part-time police chief.

    An Ohio police chief who died in May of a fentanyl overdose allegedly swiped the drugs from his own department’s evidence room, according to local reports. 

    Kirkersville Police Chief James Hughes had only been on the job two months when he was found unresponsive in the bathroom of his Reynoldsburg home. Nearby, officials said, were three syringes—one empty and two filled with fentanyl. Authorities also recovered a bag that tested positive for cocaine. 

    The part-time police chief died a short time later, and in July the coroner officially deemed the cause of death a fentanyl overdose, according to the Newark Advocate.

    The larger Reynoldsburg Police Department investigated the fatality, and last week Lt. Ron Wright revealed where he apparently got the fatal dose: the village police evidence room. 

    “There was packaging that indicated that he was taking controlled substances from there,” said Wright, according to the Advocate. It’s not clear if that could impact any ongoing cases. 

    The 35-year-old was appointed to the 500-person village’s 20-hour-per-week job as top cop on March 13, during a two-minute council meeting. Almost a year earlier, then-chief Eric DiSario was shot to death in the line of duty during an incident at a local nursing home, according to WSYX. His replacement, Jeff Finley, resigned abruptly in early March, citing disagreements with the mayor. 

    Though village council members didn’t offer any comment to the local media on it, Hughes had a troubled past before his appointment as chief. 

    During the 14 months he previously worked at the local sheriff’s office, internal affairs investigated him three times. Once, he resigned after six months, though he was later rehired working at the jail. 

    “I believe that Deputy Hughes needs to think before he acts,” one supervisor wrote in a 2012 performance evaluation, according to the Newark paper. “Deputy Hughes is known to make bad decisions on and off duty.”

    A few months later, Hughes notched up a misdemeanor conviction for a drunken incident at a nearby fast food restaurant when he spit at a drive-through worker and called her a “bitch.” 

    Once Reynoldsburg police wrap up their investigation of the chief’s death, they’ll likely forward the case to state authorities, Wright said. 

    “It’s kind of gone beyond our level. You’re talking about another agency’s property room,” he said. “We think the state should probably intervene.”

    View the original article at thefix.com