It seems clear that Ilona Dorosh has much to offer as a police officer. The 24-year-old received solid training, performed well in job interviews, speaks Moldovan and Russian along with English, and brings a woman’s perspective to a male-dominated area of public service.
Just as clear: Easthampton invited trouble by adding Dorosh to the force. The reasons have nothing to do with her ability and everything to do with the fact that she is the future wife of Police Chief Robert Alberti.
Alberti, Mayor Karen Cadieux and City Council members defend the hire, saying the chief has formally removed himself from decisions involving his fiancee’s hiring and supervision.
“We’ve been very careful … It’s not who you know. It’s based on qualifications,” said Cadieux. “It shouldn’t be held against her that she’s the chief’s fiancee.”
Alberti and the city have taken the required steps in clearing the way for Dorosh to join the department, with Alberti filing a state-mandated conflict of interest form and lawyers signing off on the arrangement. Easthampton’s mayor will have final word on whether to retain, promote, demote or fire Dorosh, while her day-to-day supervision will fall to her immediate supervisors in the department.
But the fact remains that every police official to whom Dorosh reports also reports to the chief. And that will almost certainly raise questions on the force and in the public about favoritism — both real and perceived.
“I don’t see how you can absolutely get around that even when you go by the books,” Jack Rinchich, president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and American Police Hall of Fame, told Gazette reporter Caitlin Ashworth.
Dorosh, who moved from Moldova as a child and became a citizen in 2014, was hired as a “special” (on-call) officer in February and sworn in as a full-time member of the force in June. She said she didn’t apply to any other departments. “They are one big family,” she said of Easthampton police, “and I wanted to become part of that family.”
Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper said it’s not uncommon for relatives — siblings, parents, partners — to serve on the same force. But when it comes to having a family member work at the department she runs, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper said it would be “tricky.”
“Ultimately, what happens to that employee is my decision,” Kasper said.
Even Dorosh sees the potential for trouble. “I will be under extra scrutiny by the other officers because of our relationship,” she told Ashworth. “If anything, I will have to work twice as hard to prove myself to my coworkers and my community.”
We wish the people supervising her work had as clear a sense of the potential troubles ahead, and of the questions this raises about the city’s judgment. City Councilors Daniel Rist, Joseph McCoy and Joy Winnie — who is running to replace Cadieux as mayor — told the Gazette they see no problems.
But have they really thought this through? What will they say if Dorosh at some point receives a promotion and a colleague complains of being overlooked, if a resident complains of mistreatment only to have the concern dismissed, if — heaven forbid — Dorosh deploys deadly force and the inevitable questions follow?
Such questions will have no easy answers, and in the end they may unfairly impugn Dorosh herself. The officer deserves better — and so does Easthampton.