Talking To Mike Chitwood, Former Philly Homicide Detective And Retired Top Cop Of Upper Darby, PA Police Department

Today I interviewed Michael Chitwood Sr., the recently retired Superintendent of the Upper Darby, PA Police Department.

Chitwood, whose 55 years in law enforcement was chronicled in Harold Gullan's Tough Cop: Mike Chitwood Vs. the Scumbags (Camino Books), spoke of his being the top cop in Upper Darby for 14 years, his 19 years as a Philadelphia Police narcotics officer and homicide detective, and his time as the top cop in Middletown Township Bucks County, PA and Portland, Maine.

He also offered his take on the recent riots in American cities and what he thinks of the "defund police" anti-police campaign. And he spoke of his memories of the late Frank Rizzo, the legendary former mayor and police commissioner of Philadelphia, and the late legendary Philadelphia Police Captain Clarence Ferguson.

"As a top-notch homicide detective in one of America's largest cities and chief of police in three separate jurisdictions, Mike Chitwood keenly understands the central mission of a police department: to protect the most vulnerable in society," noted the late John Timoney, the former police commissioner of Philadelphia. 

Like me, Mike Chitwood grew up in South Philly, and although I didn't know him then, we know many of the same people (criminals and otherwise).

My Q&A with Mike Chitwood will appear in the upcoming Counterterrorism magazine. I'll post the Q&A here when the magazine comes out.

   

One Tough Cop: Mike Chitwood Vs. The Scumbags

Clark DeLeon, a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a column on veteran police chief Mike Chitwood.

Mike Chitwood will celebrate his 50th year in law enforcement this April, and he's still not the top cop in his hometown. Go figure.

The unspoken message in author Harold I. Gullan's new biography, Tough Cop: Mike Chitwood vs. the Scumbags, is that this son of South Philadelphia has spent decades preparing himself for the role of  Philadelphia police commissioner.

"There's a tragedy in every triumph," Gullan said in a phone interview of Chitwwood's heroic, troubled, and ultimately vindicated career  as a street cop, highway patrolman, homicide detective, hostage negotiator, and suburban and big-city chief. "He'd have made a great police commissioner.'

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20140126_A_day_with_U__Darby_s_tough_cop.html

   
Note: I've read Tough Cop and I plan to interview Mike Chitwood in the near future. I'll post the interview here.