Coppinger named Lynn’s acting top cop

LYNN – Deputy Police Chief Kevin F. Coppinger was appointed the department’s acting chief Friday, the same day Police Chief John Suslak’s retirement became effective.Coppinger and Suslak served as the department’s two deputy police chiefs under former Police Chief John “Jack” Hollow. When Hollow retired in 2000, Suslak was named acting chief and eventually was named police chief by the late former mayor Patrick J. McManus. Coppinger remained in the post of deputy chief and then Capt. Kenneth Santoro was appointed to fill the other deputy chief position.Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. said Friday he does not plan to appoint a second deputy chief given the city’s economic difficulties.”I wish the Red Sox were as lucky. We had a very deep bench at the deputy chief position in the Lynn Police Department. I appointed Kevin Coppinger, who I have known for many years, but assuredly Ken Santoro would also be an ideal person for the job,” Clancy said. “It was a very difficult decision. Both are great human beings, police officers and leaders. I’m enthusiastic about Kevin but in no way should this be seen as a slight against Ken Santoro. I wish in every job search we had such quality and depth among the candidates.”Clancy said he prefers to follow “a more progressive” process in determining who will be the city’s next police chief. According to the mayor, the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) has an interview process for such circumstances.”It involves an interview and other criteria. I don’t believe you can pick a department head on test results alone, whether it’s for the superintendent of schools, chief of the Fire Department, Police Department, or some other municipal department. The test is more or less an examination for an egg head, when these days, the police chief must be part psychologist, budget analyst, human resources expert, community relations person and so many other things. That’s why it just can’t be about who tops the examination or who is the best pen-and-pencil person, man or woman. These jobs are complicated.”Clancy said Suslak did a fine job as police chief, adding that Catherine Latham, recently named school superintendent, has quickly grown into the role. “I’m convinced she was the right choice for the School Department, just as Jim Carritte was the right person over at the Fire Department,” he said.Coppinger will be sworn in as acting police chief on Tuesday in the mayor’s office at 4 p.m.”We will have just one deputy from this point on,” said Clancy. “Under normal circumstances, I would be appointing one of the captains as the second deputy, but we’re not in a place where he can be filling any administrative positions, just as was the case at the School Department.”Clancy said he intends to contact the MMA to learn whether a hybrid process might give him more flexibility when picking a permanent police chief. There are options, he said – call for a Massachusetts Civil Service Commission examination and base the decision solely on the results; call for the same test and enhance it with a candidate assessment process; or have the MMA conduct the assessments so that the candidate is weighed both objectively and subjectively.The mayor said the local police union’s collective bargaining contact could hold a stake in the process. “That has yet to be determined,” he said. “There might be some feeling on the part of the union that if you go to the MMA for the chief, you can do it with the deputy and then the captains and so on. But if you go only with a test, the person who has the most time to study often gets high marks. That leaves the acting police chief at a tremendous disadvantage because he’ll have no time to study with all the new responsibilities.”Coppinger began his law enforcement career on the Lynnfield Police Department and later transferred to Lynn. His late father, Joseph, retired from the Lynn Police Department as head of the detective’s bureau.Married with two sons, the new acting police chief is a