Cleveland Mayor Embarrassed by Officers’ Wrongdoings

"This will not be tolerated," said Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland. "It’s embarrassing to us. It’s embarrassing to them. It’s embarrassing to the citizens of Cleveland. We just want to see all that behind us and do more positive things for our department."

After yet another sex scandal rocked the department last week when a married officer sent a female colleague a nude picture, questions are surfacing whether the department has deep management and morale issues or the spotlight is unfairly focused on a problem that plagues every work place.

"It seems like it’s scandal after scandal after scandal but it happens at every organization, every business," said the Cleveland Police Department’s public information officer Evie West. "The only difference is that we’re held to a higher standard. And we need to be held to a higher standard."

"In private business where you have four to five hundred employees, you’re going to have indiscretions," said Rowland. "Those don’t make the news because ours are public record and public information."

On October first, a new police chief will take over and all eyes will be on him.

Will new policies be implemented? Will the same accountability of the past few months carry through"

"Everyone is going to watch the new chief," said Rowland. "Everyone is going to watch every member of the police department because he cannot do his job unless every officer does their job properly."

One thing is certain…the city of Cleveland is ready to move forward.

"I’m sorry that we’ve let the public, our community down," said West. "I just ask the community, the public, not to lose trust and hope in us and that this is just a season that we’re going through and hopefully very soon we will be back on our feet and represent the city well."

The three candidates for police chief are Tennessee Highway Patrol Captain Jessie Brooks, Red Bank Police Chief Tim Christol and interim Cleveland Police Chief Mark Gibson.