A panel assigned to take a broad look at the troubled N.C. Highway Patrol has among its members a wide variety of experience, and just as important, a collective reputation for straight-shooting.
Gov. Beverly Perdue has charged the group with recommending the best way to replace the outgoing commander, Col. Randy Glover, who recently resigned after several months during which individual troopers and officers quit or were dismissed because of trouble including drunken driving and sexual misbehavior. The Patrol's "macho culture" has been cited as a problem over the years, including by a consultant the Patrol hired several years ago.
Former state Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, former N.C. Central University Chancellor Julius Chambers, security consultant Chris Swecker (a former assistant division director of the FBI), Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist, former N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Ralph Walker and Norma Houston of the UNC School of Government are the panel's members.
This is no mean feat. The Patrol's credibility has been seriously compromised, and one reason Glover, an old friend of the governor's, is gone is that he didn't seem to understand that.
Another factor making the task difficult is the Patrol's long history of being politically connected in the General Assembly, where in the mid-1970s a law was established requiring that the commander of the Patrol come, always, from within its ranks.
That decision has prevented governors from reaching outside for leadership, even if a fresh perspective would be valuable. Perhaps it's no surprise that the governor when the law was enacted was a Republican, Jim Holshouser. The General Assembly was Democratically controlled and inclined to limit Holshouser in many ways.
Perdue has said she wants this group to look at a range of issues, including possible changes in the Patrol's structure and the definition of its fundamental mission. Even with hundreds of hard-working, conscientious troopers, it's clear the organization is floundering, and all North Carolinians who value the good work the Patrol does and believe it is an important part of law enforcement want that stopped.
