Police Chief Vince Demasi shares a laugh with Mayor Jeri Muoio (Gary Coronado / PB Post photographer)
A “humbled and honored” Vince Demasi was officially ratified as the city’s new police chief on Monday, pledging that the department would be transparent and respected in the community under his watch.
“That is obviously the most important part in developing a rapport with the community and making sure the community feels comfortable with it’s police department,” Demasi said.
Demasi, 55, retired as an assistant police chief in Cincinnati earlier this month and was hired by Mayor Jeri Muoio on June 8 after a national search. The city commission ratifies the mayor’s appointments for police and fire chiefs. He starts in his new job Aug. 13.
Demasi said Monday that he doesn’t anticipate bringing any officers from Cincinnati to West Palm Beach. He praised acting co-chiefs Mary Santos-Olsen and Bryan Kummerlen, who will serve as assistant police chiefs under him.
“Both have done a very superb job and I am very confident we will have a strong working relationship,” Demasi said. “As far as I’m concerned, our staff is very good and there is no need to bring in any folks at this time. We will continue to evaluate but I’m confident we can do great things with the staff we have.”
When Muoio ran for mayor last year, she cited low morale in the police department as a reason to replace chief Delsa Bush. Several rocky months later, Bush resigned in October after a public spat with the mayor over a police radio system that Bush advocated but that Muoio did not support.
On Monday, Muoio said the morale has already turned around under Kummerlen and Santos-Olsen. Demasi said morale will continue to improve.
“We will have an open door policy and will be willing to communicate (with officers), meet with them, work with them and treat them as the professionals that they are,” Demasi said. “Morale will improve and morale will be as high as it can be. This is a very difficult job these men and women do.”
Commissioner Sylvia Moffett, who represents the city’s crime-ridden north end, said she was “very impressed with (Demasi’s) relationship between the police department and the community. We talked a lot about what’s happening in our city and how it has to be a give and a take.”
