Good sense for sake of safety

MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 29, 2001

They may be the only police force ever held hostage by an unarmed college student demanding jelly doughnuts.

That happened a decade ago to the Capitol Police, the officers who provide security at state office buildings and the Capitol. They actually shut down the state Capitol for five hours while figuring out what to do.

Through years of sexual harassment investigations and other complaints, the Capitol Police seemed to be immune from any attempt to make them part of a professional law enforcement operation.

It took an act of terrorism.

This week Gov. Jeb Bush did what should have been done by the last three or four governors: He directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over Capitol Police.

Legislators will be asked to formally approve the change next year. In the interim, the police will work under an agreement between Cynthia Henderson, secretary at the Department of Management Services, and FDLE director Tim Moore.

The governor made the move as part of a statewide attempt to bolster security for Floridians in the wake of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

For years the Capitol Police worked under the supervision of DMS, a state agency that did little to encourage good law enforcement. Now they have a chance to become part of a really good law enforcement agency.

That should make you feel safer in any state building at a time when all of us are feeling a bit unsafe.

The past antics of the Capitol Police would have made a good sitcom, but they didn't do much for good law enforcement. Henderson's most recent contribution to the agency was to put a guy in charge whose primary law enforcement credentials were gathered as a part-time officer in Winter Park and Leon County.

Foster Harbin, the officer, is better known for his political connections. They go back to the Bush-Quayle campaign of 1992, where he worked as deputy finance director. Prior to that he worked on the presidential advance team for former President Bush.

Harbin covered his walls with pictures of Republican presidents and other officials. It made his office look more like state GOP headquarters than part of a law enforcement agency. It was an embarrassment to the professional cops who worked in the Capitol.

But giving badges to political operatives was hardly new. For a long time, too many Capitol Police officers got their jobs because of a political connection to a legislator or someone else in the Capitol.

Attempts to get rid of the good ol' boy politics inside the agency often ran into trouble. The last chief, Col. Terry Meek, wound up suing the governor and Henderson in an uproar that did nothing to improve the agency's image. Meek took the job a few years ago with a mandate to clean it up, but his "bull in the china shop" style ran into trouble.

There have always been some good officers at Capitol Police, but the antics of others tended to overshadow the good. In the mid-1990s, the agency had to spend $220,000 in taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by two women officers who were subjected to computer programs displaying animated sex, suggestive cartoons and derogatory remarks. The agency's initial response to a complaint from the women was to assign them to walk parking lots outside the capitol.

Now Scotty Sanderson, a veteran FDLE agent who has supervised the agents who provide security to the governor, has been put in temporary command at the capitol.

Sanderson is a decent guy who could often be seen in the background at any event that attracted the governor and a crowd. He is a breath of fresh air for the remaining officers as well as others in the capitol who work with the agency.

Under FDLE supervision, Capitol Police will now have access to a professional staff and assistance that has long been needed.

And if you are inclined to worry about Harbin, the political operative who was running the place the last few months, worry not. Henderson has given him a slightly higher paying, $83,000-a-year job at DMS.

Another look at the way our government works. There is no end to the entertainment possibilities available for all of us.

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