John J. Romero became Chief of Police of the City of Lawrence in 1999 and after almost 15 years as such, on July 12, 2013 he announced his retirement. It’s time for a review of his “accomplishments” during this period. We at Rumbo, praise ourselves of being the carriers of the good things that happen in Lawrence.
In our opinion, Chief Romero is not part of that.
Public Relations: F
One of the biggest complains we listen from the community, specially the Latino population is the disrespectful way in which police treat them when they go to the Police Station to do a report. “The worst part of this is that that kind of behavior comes from Latino cops, and we thought that having a Latino chief of police it would be different,” they claim. The arrogance and mistreatment begins the moment they answer the telephone and the website is an embarrassment.
Telling the media what they want to hear: A
We vividly remember when Romero came for an interview before the city council, he praised himself as being the one that cleaned up the New York City public transportation system from graffiti, and he authored the creation of a system to identify the perpetrators. At that time graffiti was minimal in Lawrence, today, just go out and look. DPW even acquired a truck dedicated to wash them out.
Biggest accomplishments: F
One of his biggest accomplishments, for which he pads himself on the back, is the crackdown of Insurance Fraud. Remember? People crowded in a car just to have an accident around a corner with every passenger ending in a chiropractor’s office? The plot was not ‘discovered’ by our police or FBI until a grandmother died in a crash, even though Senator Susan Tucker had been screaming about that racket for years. That lady had been soliciting passengers at the Senior Center to accompany her in this money-making scheme. How sad!
Protecting his own: A
Romero was always quick protecting his own in complete disregard for the rest of the citizens. One of the most notorious incidents was the one that brought the ACLU to Lawrence, when a citizen almost lost an ear after being beaten up while in custody by one of his men. This kind of behavior by the men in blue under his command had cost Lawrence citizens’ MILLIONS in lawsuits.
Romero’s honesty: F
Romero, the man that was in charge of keeping us honest, accepted an illegal extension of his contract by the past administration. The rule says that contracts should not be for more than three years, yet Mayor Sullivan extended it to five to make sure that he would outlast the Lantigua Administration. Did anybody complain?
Listening to the public’s complains: F
Over the years, people used to complain to us about the abuses of the traffic control officers, ticketing everybody except a few. Specifically, about a woman (married to a LPD officer) we know who claimed “she could park all day long on a 2 hrs. limit parking space.” We wrote to him about that and the response was immediate, Romero sent his chief of internal investigations to our home with a tape recorder. Speaking close to the recorder we said at that time: “We are afraid of the police, more than the gangs. Eventually, gangs get caught while the police cover each other.” That ended the interview and he left. For months we wrote extensively with pictures of the abuse by the previous School Superintendent and two of his closest confidants. They would violate the parking limitations without being bothered by the Traffic Control Officers while whoever was parked in front or behind of them would be ticketed. One of them, even sent a message to Rumbo with a common friend: “Tell Rumbo I can park anywhere and for as long as I want without anybody stopping me.” Romero’s response thru one of his aides was: “We need witnesses, time of the day and for how long they were parked.” Wouldn’t it be easier to contact the Traffic Control Officer under his command and verified our claim? After all, we are not investigators, but for us it was a message from the chief: “Don’t bother me with facts.” The person in question is the son of Chief Romero’s former girlfriend. We wonder if he still enjoys that immunity.
The Friends and Family Plan: A
Our most recent experience with Chief Romero was the accident in front of our house, reported in www.rumbonews.com , of November 8th, 2012 –‘Anatomy of a Cover Up.’ Guess what? The author of the accident was driven safely to his house in a police cruiser; by contrast, the author of the report was investigated by the Lawrence Police chief’s Internal Affairs Investigator Sgt. Emil De Fusco, Jr. This was the second time Rumbo was investigated because of its reporting. Never heard of a similar situation with any other publication, which brings to mind that it was really intimidation. By the way, this fellow happens to be the son of Chief Romero’s confidential Secretary. Before September 3, we may be investigated again. We only hope that his successor is not a political person like Romero is. He campaigned for Lantigua’s opponent and it became obvious from day one that he was going to give him a battle as it turned out for three years.
Lawrence needs a police chief who is firm disciplining his officers, following the law and not involved in politics.
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