FIVE STAR BOSS BADGE - POLICE DIRECTOR
BY Dennis Beyer
(Front and rear view of Newark Police Director Badge. Front has "five stars" at the top. The rear view shows the makers mark or Hallmark of Blackington Co).
This was the Top Badge in the N.P.D. years ago. I am not sure it still exists, but I have heard rumors of political changes and "new titles." So I can only report that in its day this was the "Boss Cop." He had authority over the Police Chief (who had four stars).
People who held this Title did not have to come up from the ranks. Quite a few came from out of the Department.
Over the years those who have held the job moved on to other "Top Cop" positions. Of recent note is Garry McCarthy He spent years on the job in New York City before becoming Police Director in Newark in 2006. His "Stars" are linked to Senator Corey Booker, who made McCarthy's initial appointment as Newark Police Director.
Five years later McCarthy became Police Superintendent in Chicago. There he made the news following a shooting incident, and subsequent calls for his resignation. In 2014 he was fired by the Chicago Mayor.
Other Newark Police Directors have moved on to top jobs in other jurisdictions. Sheila Coley, became the First Black wWoman to become Boss of three Departments - Newark, East Orange, and Trenton, NJ. Joseph Santiago held positions with other agencies too. The list is interesting.
Looking back, at those who held the Director's Title, is a man I wrote about many posts ago. That would be Dominick Spina. He was tough, but his toughness is not my focus. Luck would probably be a more accurate definition of his attributes.
Spina did his job and did not take any BS. Naturally this made him a target, literally. People hated him and had a major need to remove him from his position. In July of 1968 they went after the man at his home. Spina was seen in his living room, and the shotgun was aimed at him, the trigger pulled, and the target missed. Spina bent over, at the instant of the shotgun blast, to put a leash on his German Shephard named "Nero."
(Director Spina, with Nero. Both are smiling only because it was time to take the dog for a walk.)
The Badge, and my good luck to aquire it is the story in this post. It represents the highest "rank" in the N.P.D. The job has been rewritten and the duties may not be exactly the same, but the symbolism is still there. The Badge is "Boss." Those five stars deliver a message.
I am most glad to say this Badge is in my Collection, under glass, and hanging on my wall among other memorabila.
