Dave Titus: Not a Team Player

So, if you’ve been following the preparations for the Republican National Convention here in Saint Paul, you probably know that there are questions about the number of officers needed to maintain law and order during the event. The Saint Paul Police are coming in for some criticism over staffing levels, and while some of it is from Ramsey County’s “Sheriff Bob” Fletcher - and thus ignorable - the men and women in blue are taking criticism from closer to home: one of their own.

Dave Titus is the president of the Saint Paul Police Federation, which - presumably - means he was elected to that position by a majority of his peers. Assuming that’s true - and that there are no Chicago-style politics at play - Titus’ endless parade of cynical comments criticizing and second-guessing his department’s leadership could hint at morale problems in the department. If you search on the web, or in newspaper archives, you have to hunt very, very hard to find anything nice that Titus has said about his department, ever. Since the RNC announced Saint Paul as the site of the 2008 convention, he’s had little but scorn and contempt for his department’s preparations.

“The ball was dropped”, he says this week, of the SPPD’s planning, and “a recipe for disaster” is how he describes the city’s chosen route for the September 1st anti-war march. Not one to mince words much, “a complete joke” was his description of the City’s plans to enlist other public-safety bodies, such as firefighters, for security efforts at the convention. Last year, he accused the City of wanting to “try to portray that the city is safer than it actually is”, and that’s barely scratching the surface of his endlessly negative attitudes about pretty much everything the City, and the Department, does.

So, like, what gives? Is Dave Titus just a perpetually negative curmudgeon? He’s stated time and again that he would like to see not 3500 officers, but 6000, on the streets for the RNC. Nevermind that he’s offered, as far as I can tell, no ideas at all as to where those additional 2,500 folks are supposed to come from - is his criticism of every action taken by the City of Saint Paul, the SPPD, and Chief Harrington just sour grapes? Yes, he probably sees it as an officer-safety issue, and rightly so - but is his constant pissing and moaning helping anything, or just souring attitudes and damaging morale? How do others in the department feel about Titus’ endless litany of complaints? It seems like, over the last year, every single official statement by the department - usually through spokesperson Paul Welsh - has been immediately rebutted or dismissed by Dave Titus. I mean, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear Titus was the Ramsey County Sheriff union spokesperson, not the SPPD’s!

Look, Dave, I don’t want to suggest that the Chief should keep a tighter leash on you, but Jesus Christ, man, don’t you think it might be more helpful, more productive, to try and support the department, to try and project a unified front, than to be constantly criticizing the department or second-guessing the Chief and undermining his authority? I know you’ve got the best interests of the union at heart, but would it really hurt to just bite your freaking tongue until the convention is over, take one for the team, and try and make the department and the City look good during their fifteen minutes in the national spotlight? Is that really asking too much? Obviously, when things go to hell in a handbasket, you can’t be expected to keep your trap shut and refrain from saying “I told you so” to every reporter who has you on speed-dial - but until then, could you please curb your destructively asinine impulses? Thanks…

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