Whitehead apologizes. Click here for Spec report. Also, see further below in this article, for a correction of facts submitted by the Hamilton Police Services.
Liar, liar, pants on fire...it's a juvenile phrase that many of us likely heard in our schoolyard days. Sadly, an exchange between Clr. Terry Whitehead and Chief of Police Glenn DeCaire, descended into the Clr. calling the Chief a liar, as captured on a tape recording by a Hamilton Spectator reporter (see story here).
The exchange is unfortunate as Clr. Whitehead served as a staunch opponent of the Police Services' request for a budget increase and, in our view, both the Chief and Whitehead demonstrated necessary leadership in hashing out this matter.
But Whitehead's allegation that two ACTION officers were standing around for forty five minutes, talking at city hall, seems to have taken the conversation elsewhere to a different level on the down elevator. The Chief stated that the officers parted after nine seconds- (this has been found to be incorrect. Please see correction below). This prompted Whitehead to say to the Chief "You're a liar". The Chief characterized the Clr's actions as "exhibiting a crisis of credibility". Whitehead's version of the facts were somewhat mashed- getting the date that the incident allegedly occurred wrong but allegedly, the rest correct.
This is not the only exchange that recently transpired between the two. Whitehead's characterization of ACTION team members as "giraffes", prompted the Chief to ask Whitehead to issue a sincere apology to the officers. Upon Whitehead's refusal to do so, the Chief wrote Whitehead a formal letter. The letter and the write up from The Bay Observer, can be seen here.
Do you believe Clr. Whitehead is spiraling downwards where his views on the Police Service are concerned and that his observations may be perceived as "sour grapes" on account of the budget outcome, or do you have an alternative view of this?
Please note that the following corrections were brought to our attention by The Hamilton Police Services, relative to a story in The Spec. The Hamiltonian understands that these corrections have also been sent to The Spec. :
In the second paragraph, it states:
'The chief said the officers parted after nine seconds'. This was not stated. In fact, the Chief stated: 'The two photographs were taken, not 45 minutes apart, but 9 seconds apart'.
Later in the story, it is stated:
The chief said he researched the photos and told board members the two members of the ACTION team were only together for nine seconds. Again, as above, the chief did not state this. Again, the Chief stated: 'The two photographs were taken, not 45 minutes apart, but 9 seconds apart'.
The chief did state:
I have reviewed the deployment of the officers and have found that they were deployed properly,
assigned to a specific patrol area and were within the assigned area, were performing legally authorized and required duties related to traffic enforcement and were in compliance with the direction of their supervisors. Their highly visible presence along contributes to the safety of the public.
