Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Police Chief Mossman moving on
PHOENIXVILLE >> In the days leading up to his last day in Phoenixville, Police Chief William Mossman was the first to admit he was having trouble getting too excited. There was still plenty of work to do first.
“I’ve really been concentrating here,” he said. “I told council that I literally was going to work until my last day and I am.”
For someone who’s spent the last quarter decade dutifully serving and protecting the borough, no one should be that surprised.
Mossman celebrated his final day on the job Friday capping 25
years with the department and 10 years as police chief. He’ll next take command as East Coventry Township Police chief starting Sept. 12.
Before he exchanged badges, though, Mossman sat down to reflect on his career in the borough and what his time there has meant to him.
New sheriff in town
Since he began working with the department in 1991, he had always planned to do a full 25 year career with the department.
“It’s kind of a cliche because I’ve heard it so often, but the time really does fly,” he said. “I’ve heard so many people say ‘oh it just feels like yesterday when I started.’ But when you’re in it and you’re working your way through the ranks and you’re raising a family and you’re going to night school it is what it is. Then all of the sudden it’s 25 years.”
Mossman came to the borough during a time of transition for the police department. Up until that point, police officers were generally born and raised in Phoenixville. Yet the department was facing an issue of familiarity with its officers and wanted to make a change.
“It’s difficult policing the town where you grew up,” he said. “Some people look at you hypocritically. Or you may have animosities where you may have always wanted to get that teacher and the moment you have the opportunity, you may overuse your power.”
Mossman, a Delaware County native, was among a fresh crop of officers hired from outside the area to help clean up the borough.
Downtown Phoenixville was a shadow of its former self when he first arrived in town, he remembered. Seedy bars were among the few successful businesses in town as many store fronts were closed. Open air drug dealing, especially on the North Side of town, was rampant. Mossman was hired as an undercover police officer because no one knew him and he could blend in easily to take down drug dealers.
“People just blatantly standing there in the streets, on the corners by the half dozen that would literally run out and force your car to stop,” he said. “Because they didn’t want you to get to the next block because there was another group of drug dealers down there. They wanted to sell you their drugs before you could make it another block.”
Prostitutes walking up and down the street were also a common sight, he said, but it was difficult to do much about them. Police would have to catch them in the act before they could arrest them.
Over time, things started to change for the better. Along with the hard work of borough council and former Phoenixville Main Street Manager Barry Cassidy, the police department really pushed to clean up the borough and helped jump start its revitalization, he said.
“We focused on the open air drug dealing, we focused on the prostitution, we focused on the petty crimes, the assaults that happened downtown, the public drunkenness, the disorderly conduct,” he said. “Those quality of life issues. We really focused on those issues quite a bit.”
After a decade of work, things started to get better. At the same time Mossman rose through the ranks and was named the borough’s first lieutenant in 2003. By the end of his first year he became it’s acting chief before becoming permanent chief in 2006.
His success mirrored the success of the borough. Both were achieved through dedication and hard work.
“It was a hard fight to change what generations used to think was acceptable behavior to we were just no longer accepting this behavior for the betterment of everybody,” he said. “It’s not perfect yet but it is tremendously better than what it was.”
Lessons learned
When Mossman first came to town, he admitted he wasn’t well versed in dealing with the morally gray areas of crime fighting. He was a black and white, guilty or not guilty type of police officer and it took a while to soften that approach.
“Now I actually teach to not be the kind of person that I was when I first came here,” he said. “When I first came here you either did it or you didn’t do it. There’s black and white. I didn’t care who you were. If you did it, you were wrong and you were going to suffer the consequences. That was my mentality.”
Today he’s realized not everyone needs a firm hand to learn their lesson, he said. For example, a mother who’s momentarily distracted and accidently runs through a stop sign because her infant is choking in the back seat shouldn’t be punished because she wouldn’t normally do such a thing.
On the other hand, the guy with a race car leaving high school everyday doing burn outs and repeatedly running through a stop sign needs a ticket to learn his lesson.
“You can pull him over and warn him a hundred times, but if he doesn’t get an actual ticket, he has no incentive to change his behavior,” Mossman said.
Another lesson Mossman learned was understanding the value of the community’s partnership with the police department. As an outof-towner when he first began, he admitted he wasn’t highly motivated to get involved in the community.
“My motivation was to enforce the laws in this community,” he said. “Not so much to get to know the people, to get to know the merchants, to understand what this town really needs.”
Overtime, he realized his job was all about relationships and giving back to the community. The public’s perception of a police department should be a positive one. The two sides shouldn’t be enemies, he said.
“Now I see how absolutely vital it is to have community support, especially with what’s going on in the whole nation,” he said. “As you see cities burning and officers being charged, video cams of everything, officers being assassinated. To have that kind of public backlash, to have that mistrust … citizens need to realize that police officers are made up of them.”
“We went to high school with them. We went to college with them. We live in the neighborhoods. We coach football with them. We are just a bunch of citizens who put on a uniform and come and do a job.”
Moving on
With those valuable lessons in mind, Mossman was able to achieve all that he’d set out to accomplish during his tenure. Everything he’s tried and fought for he’s gotten, he said.
He worked for the Chester County District Attorney’s Office as a special county detective. He was a member of the county Drug Task Force from 1993 until 2005. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and a master’s degree in public safety management, both from Saint Joseph’s University. Mossman is also a 2008 graduate of the FBI National Academy. He is a vice president of the Chester County Chiefs of Police Association, and a vice president of the Chiefs of Police Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Audubon Consultant Group which is an organizational management consulting firm. He was a member of the federal Firearms Task Force, which investigated drugs and other crimes committed with a firearm and then prosecuted the offenders through the federal judicial system. Mossman is a decorated officer who has received numerous public, civic and law enforcement awards along with commendations and citations.
In Phoenixville, he fought for and finally convinced council to hire 30 well trained and equipped police officers. The department is an accredited institution and is located in a brand new facility inside the new borough hall.
With all of his goals achieved, he said now is the perfect time to take the job in East Coventry. It allows him to do the one thing he’s wanted to do for years- getting back out on patrol.
“I got into police work to never have to do what I do now,” he said. When he joined the police department he liked the idea of a not sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day. “The funny thing is I was so successful at being that guy that they promoted me. ‘We want you to train people to be like you’ and before you know it I am doing exactly what I got into police work to never have to do.”
And as an East Coventry resident, starting fresh going out on patrol again, is a really attractive quality of his new job. He’ll get a chance to talk to his neighbors and be closer to home too. He lives with his wife, Sue. The couple have two sons, Damien and Mitchell. Both work for military intelligence. Their daughter, Catie, just graduated high school and is beginning her first semester in college.
“For East Coventry, for that position to open up, literally the moment that I became eligible to retire I just kind of took that as a sign,” Mossman said. “How could it line up that well? I applied in East Coventry and they offered me the position. I just took it as it is a sign. It’s time start something new over there.”
Saying goodbye
Even while Mossman was still focused on finishing his work in Phoenixville, there were plenty of people already discouraged by the thought of saying goodbye.
“Our relationship has developed more than boss and employee,” said Mayor Michael Speck. “We reached a stage very quickly where he and I could openly and frankly discuss any concerns, confront one another on any issues and together work to make the borough an outstanding borough. I’m extremely proud of the chief and all he has accomplished and all he has given to the department. Our accreditation, the morale overall within the rank and file and our command staff. He truly has been our number one asset.”
Borough Manager Jean Krack said his job is to manage the borough’s budget and the police chief’s job is to do police work. By design there’s bound to be conflict between the two positions. Yet working with Mossman, they early on formed a “very fabulous professional and personal relationship.”
“He’s a friend, a peer that I look up to,” Krack said. “I’m going to miss him.”
“It’s with a lot of sadness that we say goodbye as our police chief,” said council President James Kovaleski. “He’s done a great deal to better the police department and the entire borough benefitted. Our loss is East Coventry’s gain. We wish him well in future endeavors.”