Letters | Homegrown talent in the Police Department

SO WE HAVE a mayor who thinks we have to go outside to find a qualified person to run the police department.

Just another slap in the face to the four deputy commissioners and the many chiefs and inspectors who have given decades of service to the city. You have a lot of very good commanders who would do a very fine job running the show.

Hopefully, the new commissioner will get rid of the hangers-on and place them were they might get some experience being a police officer. Just a few hints for the new commissioner:

Talk to the FOP president before you make the decisions like you did in Washington. We have a strong contract and changes have to be negptiated, and we also have one of the best arbitration records. So, if the city doesn't mind paying out a lot of money, then they will let you make any the changes you want

- but remember, this is a civil-service town, something that guy from New

York couldn't understand when he was commissioner.

Robert Stewart

Philadelphia