The recent firing of Portsmouth Police Detective Aaron Goodwin and the resignation of Police Chief Stephen Dubois bring police ethics under the spotlight.
Goodwin was fired after a city commission determined he acted wrongfully in accepting a 2.7 million dollar inheritance from an elderly woman he befriended. While the chief told the Portsmouth Herald that a thorough investigation of the officer’s relationship with Geraldine Webber found no wrongdoing, witnesses testified there was no investigation, and that police officials turned a blind eye toward one of their own.
Roger Wood reached out to the head of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of police for an interview, and received no response on the issue of police ethics. But Richard Beary, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police responded.
While he didn’t comment directly on the Goodwin case, he talked in general about the ethical issues involved in police involvement with the public.
Beary is the chief of police at the University of Central Florida. His term expires at the end of this month. Dubois has resigned from the Portsmouth Police Department effective in March. Under the agreement he signed with the police commission, he will “continue to fulfill all of the duties of chief of police.” That agreement stands unless he is terminated for cause or by mutual consent with the city. While other police officials have been linked to knowledge about the Goodwin relationship with Webber, so far there have been no other resignations.