The quest by Coral Gables, Fla., to name a new police chief got off to a chaotic start Thursday, with the city naming an acting chief in the morning, canceling that by the afternoon, and finally naming an interim chief by the early evening — all while angry residents decried police for manipulating crime statistics and failing to stem a rising tide of high-profile burglaries, says the Miami Herald. “It was a Roman circus,'' said a Coral Gables resident.
After a nine-hour meeting, the city commission unanimously named Maj. Ed Hudak, a 26-year police veteran, as interim police chief. Hudak replaced Dennis Weiner, who resigned this week after giving 24 hours of notice. During the meeting, packets of printed crime statistics provided by the police department were ripped to pieces by the residents, after police told commissioners crime rates were at an all-time low despite the rash of break-ins in the city. Commissioner Vince Lago called the statistics “an insult to my intelligence.”