Wray's demise
When your boss changes the locks on your doors, it's hard not to get the hint: Resign or be fired.
For whatever reasons -- and there seem to be more than one -- David Wray no longer is Greensboro's police chief.
Wray's fall from grace seems rooted in his management style; he apparently alienated enough people in the department to undermine his officers' morale and City Manager Mitch Johnson's confidence.
There is enough irony in this story to last into next year.
Wray was chosen in a painstaking process that included a panel of community representatives.
He rose through the ranks.
He comes from a family of local cops.
He said the right things at the right times.
He was a spit-and-polish stickler for details and regulations and by-the-book neatness and order.
Among his first directives as the new chief was the modify the design of police cars. Never mind that a committee of officers had conceived the paint scheme; it was too busy.
Then there was the directive that cops would wear hats.
The tiff over rotating schedules. The furor over a so-called "secret police" unit.
There's nothing in and of itself that was wrong with Wray's firece desire for neatness and order and crisp creases.
He never ironed out the wrinkles and repaired the frayed threads of too many tatteresd relationships.
What a sad ending.
Comments (7)
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I just figured it was the "black and white" politics that have punished Greensboro over the past several years..If a white person uses questionable judgement,hang,em high because hes a racist...If a black person uses questionable judgement,youre a racist for calling them out..
Posted on January 10, 2006 9:47 PM
Chief Wray had an extraordinary gift for communicating with ordinary people, and I believe he really understood what kind of policing the city of Greensboro needs. It's a shame that the management problems so entangled him.
I liked him very much and will miss him.
Posted on January 10, 2006 10:23 PM
What strikes me as unusual about the Wray story is how the News & Record played into the piece. When Wray outlined Hinson's connection to illegal activity, the newspaper ran the story without asking the hard questions or digging deep enough to find out that Hinson was cleared of criminal wrong doing in '03 and administrative wrong doing in '04. This is a case of being a recorder versus being a reporter.
I think the News & Record has to accept some responsibility for what happened to Hinson.
Posted on January 11, 2006 2:08 PM
Rick:
Your characterization is unfair and simplistic. the evidence against the chief is hard to refute. Further, he'd lost confidence among black and white officers, as well as the city manager and the City Council.
This hardly seems to be a case of HIM being unfairly persecuted.
Posted on January 11, 2006 6:59 PM
David:
I share your shock and your regrets.
My dealings with the chief were always pleasant. He seemed open, professional and sensitive. He appeared to have a thoughtful, holistic view of policing.
It's hard to reconcile those impressions with the findings of the recent investigations.
Posted on January 11, 2006 7:02 PM
Simplistic and unfair??Thats you,re opinion and I can respect that..Maybe the ex-chief will be able to refute some of the accusations before all the local rags convict him..Oh well,never mind its too late for that..That being said,any Greensboro or Guilford County politics are always entangled in "black-white" politics from the Councils,to the schools,and now the police dept...
Posted on January 11, 2006 10:13 PM
Allen stated above, ..."the evidence against the chief is hard to refute."
What do you have to say about that now? What evidence? That he ran a tight ship and some old timers were pissed off because of the rotating shifts and a mandate to wear a hat?
What a joke...
Posted on March 17, 2008 2:54 AM