THE WHEELS OF LIFE KEEP ON TURNIN'

Life-Changing Experience (click here)

I liked working with this last police chief so much, I did it for free.

I guess it's conservative to fire a competent guy who works at a job for free, if he's a known democrat!  Of course, these boys wouldn't know that because nobody every asked me "What is it you do and how do you charge us for it?"

Much more to the point, thanks to all the police personnel who made these last 37 years such a great experience.  See ya'll down the road.

If you had trouble with the link, see below:

                                                      ANTHONY B. CAMERON

                                                            ATTORNEY AT LAW

529 HAMPSHIRE STREET * SUITE  511

QUINCY, ILLINOIS   62301

www.abclawoffice.com

Telephone:  (217) 228-8669                                                                                            E-mail: dacamara@adams.net

Telefax:       (217) 228-2225                                                                                                   IL Attorney No. 0374555

                                                                                                                                                AR Attorney No.  73137

May 7, 2013

Chief Robert Copley

Quincy Police Department

110 South 8^th Street

Quincy, IL  62301

                        Re:      End of Years as Counsel

My Dear Friend Chief Copley:

            For more than the last thirty-five years, I have been in one or more consultative roles with the Quincy Police Department, the last twenty-eight as the Department’s principal civil advisor. 

No service in my career has been the source of more pride and satisfaction than this relationship.  Through five Chiefs, talented Command Staff, highly skilled and motivated Officers and exemplary civilian staff, I have experienced all the joy, heartbreak, humor and serious learning that goes on inside of an urban police station.  To have shared all those things has been an enormous privilege. 

In serving the Department, it has always been my attempt to combine balance, discretion and professionalism with the legal skills and training I brought to the job. I have had no client for whom I saw greater success, over time, than your Department. 

Many years ago, Chief Wilson and I decided to meet weekly to prevent problems, where possible, and to address them early when they appeared anyhow.  Chief DeVoss and you continued those weekly meetings.  In addition to providing good “preventative medicine,” we often had a lot of fun on Monday mornings.  I truly appreciated our meetings. 

After I retired as an employee, we continued the meetings.  I volunteered not to charge the City for that time.  For the last four years, that service has always been at “no charge.”

If circumstances permitted, I would gladly continue this work until my retirement from the practice of law.  I would love to continue to provide the Department with an adult lifetime of institutional legal memory.  That, for better or for worse, is not how the Real World works.  Effective May 7, 2013, at 12:01 a.m., I will no longer be the Quincy Police Department’s lead civil advisor or its attorney in any respect at all.

I was proud to have brought a few sundry skills to the table. I had a grasp of how a police station operates.  Through effort, time and resources, I knew personnel handling and discipline of Peace Officers is completely different from any other sort of Human Resources practice. From my military experience, I know weapons and assault strategy.  My time as a lifeguard actually helped me understand tasers and AED’s.  

It would be difficult to advise a Police Chief on taser use, pursuit policy, K-9 use or racial profiling issues without understanding what it is that police, particularly patrol officers, actually do and face.

It is my hope you find some of this in my replacement.  It is also my hope you are able to continue a preventative approach to legal issues.

            On an interpersonal level, it is amazing that our personal time working together will come to almost nine years.  Because it was pleasant, it flew by.  I know I have left the Department better than I found it and hope my efforts have assisted you to that same end. 

While this letter is addressed to you personally and while l am enormously proud of and grateful for our time together, I intend it to be a salute and an expression of gratitude to every Chief, Command Staff member, Supervisor, Officer and employee with whom I shared this time.  I am the better for having had each of them as a colleague.

            Best personal regards. 

                                   

                        Sincerely,

                                                                        /s/ Anthony B. Cameron

ABC:lm

cc:       Chief Gruber

            Chief Wilson

            Chief DeVoss

            D/C LaTour

            D/C Cramer

            Captain Capps

            President Giles