Westfield’s PD History Lesson

     The Town of Westfield recently unveiled it’s new website and with it, a historical review of the beginnings of the Westfield Police Department.

     It’s interesting that the removal of the first police chief Thomas O’Neill in 1915 for being intoxicated off duty seems petty compared to the departure of Westfield’s past few police chiefs starting with Bernard Tracy in 2006.

     Chief Tracy was summoned to an executive session of the Westfield town council where he was confronted by town attorney Robert Cochren regarding accusations of sexual harassment by Detective Sandy Chambers.

     A source has confirmed that after a brief discussion, Chief Tracy allegedly suggested that Lt. David Wayman would be assigned to investigate the accusations.  How else would Chief Tracy be able to cover up and white-wash the investigation……put his demon spawn in charge.  

     Town attorney Robert Cochren was having nothing of it and told Chief Tracy that an independent investigator would be hired to conduct a fair and impartial investigation.  Tracy allegedly became irate and began questioning each town council member if they were OK with that decision made by the town attorney.

     Ultimately, Tracy was cut off and told that the investigation would proceed.  Tracy was also named as a defendant in a CEPA lawsuit by another police officer that attempted to blow the whistle on illegal criminal history checks being conducted by police department personnel allegedly at the direction of Chief Tracy.  The computer checks were directed at opponents of the parking deck proposals being presented by the Westfield Town Council.

     Chief Barney Tracy never stuck around long enough for the investigation to begin.  He allegedly resigned after the executive session.

     The next police chief John Parizeau resigned not long after he received a vote of “No Confidence” from the Westfield PBA Union.  It was no surprise that his tenure was as short as it was, after all……he was only appointed to keep the seat warm for the most corrupt police chief to ever be appointed.

     Police Chief David Wayman (in picture above) would be appointed to the top spot only to be forced to resign after he was caught lying about a motor vehicle accident he was involved in and assigned his Det. Lt. Leonard Lugo to write the now infamous false police report claiming the accident was a hit and run with no suspects.  Wayman, the only suspect, would be exposed when this blog, The Fact of The Matter alerted town officials of the bogus report and coverup.  

     That coverup opened up the proverbial can of worms when law enforcement officials uncovered Wayman’s thefts from the Westfield Police Department evidence/property room.  He couldn’t help himself, he had learned from the best, his mentor.  Soon after, Wayman was gone.

     So looking back on Westfield Police Chief Thomas O’Neill’s departure, he looks like a choir boy compared to Tracy and Wayman.

     After all, what’s wrong with being intoxicated off duty when the WPD had a number of officers that were intoxicated on duty over the years including one supervisor who was almost made to take a breathalyzer test on duty at police headquarters.  He was allegedly saved by the corrupt Bernard Tracy after Tracy was alerted at home and stormed into headquarters to prevent it from happening.  Fortunately, that supervisor was never promoted again after he was promoted to lieutenant by Barney Tracy.

     That supervisor would go on to lie through his alcohol stained teeth when questioned about Chief Tracy’s past retaliatory behavior against police officers that wouldn’t kiss his ring.  The supervisor was indebted to Tracy just like the rest of Tracy’s corrupt entourage.

     So as the old saying goes, history has a habit of repeating itself.  Too bad some just can’t seem to learn from history’s past mistakes.

Click on the link below to read the Westfield Police Department’s glossed over history.  It’s a good read.

https://www.westfieldnj.gov/601/History-of-WPD