Pink slip is common peril for big-city police chiefs

Nicole Gaouette

Friday, March 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

NEW YORK -- When Howard Safir steps into police headquarters as the force's new leader, he will become New York's sixth commissioner in less than seven years - one of the most rapid turnover rates for any police department in the nation.

Mr. Safir is Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's choice to replace commissioner William Bratton, who announced his resignation earlier this week. Many law-enforcement experts have credited Mr. Bratton with instituting changes that precipitated a remarkable drop in crime here and with restoring morale to the largest police force in the country.

Like New York, most big-city police departments are accustomed to revolving-door leadership. A 1993 study by the Washington-based Police Foundation found that the average police chief in America's 50 largest cities held the position for just over two years and five months.

Political pressures, budgetary constraints, and high stress have combined to make top-brass departures almost routine. The end result, observers say, is that the 27-month tenure of Bratton is all too typical.

"Turnover in these positions has always been high," says Police Foundation president Hubert Williams. "Particularly in large cities and in the last decade, with the heavy emphasis on crime control. It's a tough job."

For the departments, all the coming and going is a fact of life, says Cynthia Brown, publisher and editor of American Police Beat in Boston. The effect of the revolving door on the department, she says, depends on the circumstances.

Police departments "are quasi-military organizations that often have enormous loyalty, or a kind of intense relationship, to the person at the top," she says. "When they're working for a boss they respect, it's fantastic what goes on. When they're not, it's a different story."

Inevitably, new police chiefs are on a learning curve, especially if they are recruited from outside a department.

"If the chief comes in as a morale booster, he often can overcome that initial hump" of learning to work with the department administration, Mr. Williams says.

For the newly appointed Safir, the learning curve could be steep. Safir, who has served as the city's fire commissioner since early 1994, does not have police department experience. He does, however, have a background in law enforcement: He previously owned a security consulting firm, served in the US Marshal Service, and worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Narcotics.