THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603080257
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY A.C. BLACK
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
When I left Chesapeake Police Division in 1979, I would not have been eligible for membership in the Ian Shipley Fan Club. I was a young, brash, idealistic cop, and he was a charter member of the infamous Chesapeake ``Good Ol' Boys' Club.''
He did not create that club, mind you, but had definitely become an officer in it. One had to join it back then if one wished to rise through the ranks. Being a young college graduate who joined the cops to fight injustice, I rejected the network and did so loudly.
Thus, our fates were sealed. His was to become chief of police, and mine was to leave the Chesapeake police of my own volition.
After leaving law enforcement for almost two years, I realized that I had fallen in love with the profession and the sense of purpose it provided me. I sought to join the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office and was honored with a job offer from Sheriff John R. Newhart. Shortly afterward, I learned that the ``good ol' boys'' in the police department had sought unsuccessfully to block my admission to the department.
That caused me to renew my distaste for Shipley and the club.
Then Sheriff Newhart threw me a curve by hiring Ian Shipley's son, Jim. I worked with Jim, got to know him as a fine young man, and began to realize that I only knew one side of Ian Shipley - the police administrator - and not other facets of his being, such as a father who reared good kids.
After six years with the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office, I went to work for the state, and was assigned to Suffolk. There I got to know a Suffolk Police officer named Dixie Shipley, and my impression of Ian Shipley improved even more. Not only had he reared some good kids, he had married well, too!
Here it is 1996, and I've been gone from Chesapeake law enforcement for 10 years. I'm still not ready to join his fan club, but I see Ian Shipley in a much different light than I did in 1979.
I see him as a man who accepted the toughest job any of us face - parenting - and performed it well. I see him as a man who had the good sense to marry a very fine lady. As a citizen of Chesapeake, I view Chief Shipley as a person who has brought the police of our city into the 1990s with one of the lowest crime rates in the state and one of the most progressive police agencies in Tidewater.
Having said all the above, I must ask City Council members to be very careful that they are not creating another ``ol' boys' '' network in their handling of the current Shipley inquisition. Media leaks, political posturing and refusal to accept independent professional opinion that no criminal acts have occurred, make one wonder if council is more interested in vengeance than justice when they asked for a grand jury investigation.
I am 100 percent behind any council action that will help dissolve the ``good ol' boys' '' club. Its end has been too long coming. But I respectfully suggest that the aura of a witch hunt that surrounds the current council intervention into the police division's problems will do little to bring about that change.
Ian Shipley, the father, the husband and the police chief deserves due process, as do the citizens of this city. MEMO: Mr. Black is a resident of Hornsea Road in Chesapeake. by CNB