AUBURN -- Auburn City Manager Douglas Selby announced that Captain Brian Neagle will be the next chief of police. Current Chief Gary Giannotta decided to retire after the deputy chief position was eliminated during budget cuts.
Neagle has been an Auburn police officer since 1985. Selby says Neagle has served in patrol and training positions and led the Finger Lakes Drug Task Force. The three finalists for the police chief position were interviewed by a five member citizen panel and the Auburn City Council. Selby made the final decision and said it was a difficult choice since all three candidates were highly qualified.
Neagle has been involved in several controversies during his career. Archives from the Auburn Citizen show that Neagle was investigated for lying on his initial 1980 employment application where he did not reveal that he had been arrested twice previously.
In Auburn Citizen reports, Neagle admitted he had been arrested on a marijuana charge and a breach of peace charge. Neagle said he pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge and the breach of peace charge was disposed. Auburn Police employment forms were later changed to ask if applicants “had been convicted of any crimes.”
In 1996, the Auburn Citizen reported that Neagle was suspended while the Cayuga County District Attorney investigated a report that he threw several golf balls at the Citizen’s front window causing more than $500 in damages.
In that same year, Chief Gary Giannotta handled an internal investigation into allegations that Neagle had made racist and anti-Semitic remarks. In the Auburn Citizen’s article from March 10 1996, officers told the paper Neagle used derogatory terms for African-Americans, Latinos and asked other officers not to use a downtown business because the owners were Jewish.
In a phone interview on Friday, Douglas Selby said he was aware of the allegations from Neagle’s past but wasn’t sure if all the citizens on the review panel knew of them. Selby said he was “aware of some background issues” but “from my examination, there were allegations made, there were indications it happened in the past.”
In regard to the controversies in Neagle’s past, Selby said “We’ve all done things in our past that we’ve regretted” and said they were in the “quite distant past.”
Selby said did extensive interviews with other officers and others in the Auburn community before making his decision. He spoke of Neagle’s high regard within the police department and said “I’m comfortable with the decision I made.”
Eli Hernandez from the Auburn branch of the NAACP said he found the 1996 allegations “disturbing” but said he “believed that people change and people learn.” Hernandez said he supports Neagle as police chief, looks forward to working with him and wants him to be successful. “This is an opportunity for him to correct what took place,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez said he learned about the allegations when a several old newspaper articles about Neagle were sent to him in an envelope with no return address.
While not all of the people on the citizen review panel knew about the allegations that had been made against Neagle, Sean McLeod did. McLeod is a noted dance instructor in the Auburn area and said he believed Neagle was a good man and deserved a chance to show that he had learned from his past.
"Our experiences affect us and they can profoundly change us. And it is our hope and our desire that that has happened not only to Mr.. Neagle but to everybody in Auburn and everybody that has gone through this process,” said McLeod.
