The Associated Press
KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - City officials have named a 30-year veteran officer as their new police chief.
Capt. Tom DiNardo accepted the chief of police badge from Mayor James Trobaugh during a news conference Thursday. He begins his new duties on Aug. 17.
DiNardo takes over for Russell Ricks, interim chief and former assistant chief. Ricks stepped into the job briefly after the retirement of former Chief Charles Hackett.
DiNardo assumes leadership as the department struggles to rebound from having three former officers convicted of civil-rights violations, and from a $1.5 million legal settlement paid to the wife of a man who died shortly after being placed in police custody.
“The past several years have proven to be challenging for this department in ways none of us could have ever imagined,” DiNardo said. “While we have provided law-enforcement services that in my mind were often exemplary and some of the best possible, we have still on occasion stumbled.”
DiNardo said he will continue to push drug enforcement and expand on neighborhood policing programs, which bring officers and residents together to help solve the community’s crime problems.