Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan is under the spotlight at the moment – and for good reason. He is being investigated at the moment by a San Francisco law firm for sending Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, a department spokeswoman, to the home of a reporter in March after midnight in order to try to get changes to a story.
Now, the spotlight is on him for another, even more ridiculous reason. On January 11th, Meehan’s son reported that someone had stolen his iPhone from his locker at Berkeley High School. This, apparently, warranted up to 10 Berkeley on-duty officers, to go searching for the phone.
When the Police Chief learned that the phone was missing, he showed his own phone to the property crimes sergeant, and then had that sergeant deploy his team and drug task force officers to look for the device.
The phone was never found – and with it went Police Chief Meehan’s dwindling reputation.
Many officers have been quietly voicing their displeasure with the incident. One source even said that Meehan took part in the search himself and Kusmiss has admitted that four detectives were paid overtime for two hours each to search for the phone.
Surely, it’s time for an investigation of the Police Chief and for a change.