Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/136775
CEMENTING HER POSITION Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino (far right) addresses the eight men and women she is about to promote to higher ranks. Photo by Stan Zimmerman ANALYSIS: THE CITY'S CHIEF OF POLICE NAMES NEW SENIOR STAFF By Stan Zimmerman City Editor It has been a perilous first six months for Sarasota's new chief of police. This city is seven times larger than the department she led previously in Ocean City, MD. She arrived hardly knowing a soul in town. Bernadette DiPino, the city's first female chief, entered a largely white male bastion determined to change its culture and modernize its outlook. Whether she succeeds remains to be seen, but she has found her bearI'm excited about the way the ings, and on Wednesdepartment's headed. day, June 12, she introduced the senior staff Johnathan Todd she has handpicked to Sergeant Sarasota Police Department watch her back. She faced a restive force, unionized but lacking a contract for many months. Two civilian advisory boards were peering into police strategies and misdeeds. And an unprecedented number of senior officers were poised on the lip of retirement. THE NEW ADMINISTRATION The promotion ceremony on Wednesday was unprecedented. Seven men and one woman in the space of a few minutes were elevated