Is it too much to ask to get a police chief up in here?

Apparently so, if you're Asheville.

The latest Asheville Police Department debacle blew up last week when Chief Chris Bailey announced his resignation, citing a need to spend more time with his wife and three children. They remain in Indianapolis, where Bailey spent 20 years working for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, last serving as deputy chief of investigations. He plans to return to that department.

Bon voyage, and thanks for stopping by!

Related:

Hey, he started work July 29, and his last day will be Sept. 27. Seriously, we've had Asheville City Schools superintendents last longer than this.

Moving a family is hard — and well-discussed

Now, I appreciate family demands, and I don't know the internal dynamics of what's going on with Bailey's family life. Relationships and their inherent demands can be incredibly tricky.

The motto that's carried my marriage 25 years is, "Happy wife, happy life." Oh, and, "Take the damn trash out and vacuum every now and then!" OK, that's Grace's motto.

But I've got to say, I'm kind of taken aback that a guy like Bailey, a career officer with aspirations to be the top cop in another city — in short, a person who understands just how vital the police chief position is in a city — would even apply for, much less accept, the top job here in Asheville if he wasn't a thousand percent sure his family was on board with it.

That's a conversation, or multiple conversations over a period of months or years, you have with your wife and kids long before you toss your hat in the ring. It's a career move that requires, well, moving, and that's always disruptive to a family, even if you're moving cross-town, but especially if you're relocating nearly 500 miles away.

More:Newly hired Asheville Police Chief Chris Bailey resigns, citing need to return to family

"We believed we could make it work," Bailey told the Citizen Times. "But things manifested themselves at home that I didn't foresee. I love this job but I always put my family first."

More to the story of Bailey's hiring?

Hey, we all do. But it makes the skeptical among us wonder if there isn't more to the picture, especially after the city's announcement of Bailey's resignation made reference to "the circulation of information regarding charges against Chief Bailey."

"Chief Bailey was involved in an incident that resulted in a misdemeanor," the announcement said. "This information was voluntarily shared by the chief at the beginning of the interview process and is in no way related to his decision to resign. The incident took place 15 years ago and was not associated with his service as a police officer. Chief Bailey has had an exemplary record in his service as a law enforcement officer."

I'll throw the first of several red flags, as this raises a lot of questions.

Just how much did the search firm, the city and city manager Debra Campbell, who made the hiring decision, dig into this "incident"? Did they know the details?

Did they read the media reports from the time — 2004 — which included a story published in Indy Star stating Bailey was arrested and charged with two felonies and two counts of misdemeanor battery after he allegedly punched, showed a gun and threatened his estranged wife's male friend on July 2, 2004? Also, during the encounter he pushed open his wife's door, knocking her to the floor, according to the report.

Those involved now dispute that version of events, but that raises a lot of questions itself, including, "Well, which version is the truth?"

The allegations in the media report are pretty serious, raising equally serious red flags about temperament and abuse of a powerful position, i.e. being a cop.

More:Asheville names next police chief: Chris Bailey of Indianapolis

I'm also always very suspicious of expunctions, especially when they involve active law enforcement officers, and these charges were reduced to a misdemeanor and then the records expunged. Maybe that's an unfair suspicion on my part, but the erasure of the records makes me wonder if special treatment occurred, especially when a felony conviction in the case would have been grounds for Bailey's dismissal from the department.

This doesn't look good

It looks to me like either end side of this poop sandwich looks bad for the city. Either officials knew the details of Bailey's past and moved ahead with his hire despite serious allegations, or they or the search firm didn't do basic research to uncover a media report that shouldn't be too hard to find.

I mean, Campbell said the city had 89 "very high-caliber candidates." One has to think at least a couple of dozen of them didn't have criminal charges lurking in their backgrounds.

It also raises perhaps the biggest question for me, and one I suspect is truly at the crux of the matter.

Would this "incident," and the subsequent misdemeanor, have prevented Bailey from becoming certified as a police officer in North Carolina? Fellow reporters Joel Burgess and Jennifer Bowman have been digging into this, but it's a labyrinth with some tightly guarded information in some corners.

I would think certification of the other candidates likely would sail through.

Honestly, none of this looks particularly great for Campbell, who herself is relatively new to the job.

And it certainly doesn't look good for the city.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 828-232-5847 or jboyle@citizentimes.com.