Jun 10, 2015 4 min read

Gov. Tom Wolf’s nomination of former Maryland state police superintendent Marcus Brown to lead the state police force in Pennsylvania was rejected this week by the Republican-controlled state Senate, and it seems that partisan politics and parochialism are largely to blame.

When his nomination was announced, Brown seemed like a more-than-solid pick for the “top cop” job. He started as a police officer walking a beat and later commanded a SWAT team, led an organized-crime division, held the second-in-command spot in Baltimore’s police department and then was tapped to head Maryland’s state police.

When Wolf put forward Brown’s name for consideration in mid-January, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association issued a statement expressing its members’ eagerness to work with Brown.

That attitude didn’t last long, and the trigger for the sudden shift appeared to be, believe it or not, Brown’s choice of work clothes as he served as acting police commissioner.

You see, Brown, a police officer and official for more than a quarter century, had the audacity to wear a Pennsylvania State Police uniform. The opinion of some current and retired Pennsylvania troopers is that only someone who has gone to the police academy in this state and served with the state police in this state is qualified to wear that uniform.

Never mind that Brown has spent nearly all of his adult life in law enforcement and rose to the highest level in a neighboring state’s police force. Some might call it “tradition.” To us, it borders on childishness. It would be like the Pittsburgh Pirates hiring a new manager but refusing to let him put on the black and gold because he once worked for the Cubs or Dodgers.

One retired trooper from Western Pennsylvania took it to an extreme in a stunt that bordered on harassment.

He found out where Brown was living in the Harrisburg area, took signs targeting Brown over the uniform issue and planted them around Brown’s neighborhood.

Then he waited with a video camera and taped Brown taking down the signs. Brown admitted that he should have just let the signs alone, but he said he didn’t want his kids to see them.

His opponents, of course, used this and other ginned up controversies against him.

There also appeared to be racial issues at play.

When Wolf nominated Brown, he cited his work to make the departments where he previously worked more racially diverse. That sort of approach might well be needed here in Pennsylvania. The state police had 62 minority troopers in 1974. Operating under a consent decree, that number ballooned to 560 in 1999, but now it’s dropped to 270.

According to a piece on the Philadelphia Inquirer website by John Baer, Brown reported that he got a letter at his home saying, “No n— lover will wear my uniform.” The same article quoted Democratic state Sen. Vincent Hughes of Philadelphia as saying, “There clearly has been a regression (in minority hiring). … The letter (to Brown) makes you think why.”

The governor is pondering whether to renominate Brown or move on. He has suggested that even though Brown has been rejected by the Senate, he could continue to serve as acting head of the state police. That concept is not sitting well with Republican senators.

Their legal mouthpiece, Drew Crompton, said, “If the Wolf administration attempts to administratively circumvent the vote of the Senate, the Republican leaders will pursue all available options to ensure that the governor fully understands the constitutional significance of an appointee being disapproved by the Senate. Confirmation is not a game.”

Regardless of how this plays out, it’s certainly not a proud moment for the state police or the state Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, summed it up well: “It is appalling that in this day and age, a nominee of this caliber with this experience and this expertise would have to face a barrage of criticism on issues and questions unrelated to his ability to handle the job.”