New police chief vows to make positive changes

 In local news,  Schenectady city officials swear in the city’s first African-American police chief. Mark Chaires, a 19 year veteran of the department, has been the assistant chief since 2001. Chaires is quite aware of the tough road that ahead of him, as city officials have also acknowledged the job for the new police chief will not be an easy one.http://timesunion.com

The Schenectady police department has been under fire with harsh criticism that the department operates unfairly. The department has been under the limelight countless times for scandals within the force.http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/2007/031607EvidenceScandal.html Even Chaires himself is considered to be an insider whom has worked along with criminals as well as other police staff in taking drug evidence from crime scenes. But Chaires has said that he is ready to rid the force of any luring scandals, and out of the 166 person department only a scarce few have blimished the credibility of the force.  There are currently three officers that are facing charges of misdemeanor and official misconduct for not filing the proper paprework when they were accused of beating a DWI suspect in December.http://timesunion.com/archives/secure/docheckout.asp?action=Get+Doc+Tag&dblist=TX2008_ALBANYTU&tagnum=200806210215&papid=albanytu&suffixes=false&synonyms=false&thesfile=savesufx.fth&view=rtemplate&templatetype=legacy&query=%28Schenectady+AND+police+department%29&outputtype=DOCXSLT

Well, I think no matter what the race or gender is of Schnectady’s new chief, there are going to be under the harshes criticism no matter what. The city of Schenectady is always in the media’s spotlight for negative positions.   But I think Schenectady residence  like many other urban city residence are sick of the scrutiny on their city. They are ready for the change. I also believe that after the few rotten apples are taken out of the police department. It too will also make a great change for the better.