Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector James Tiano, who has served as the liaison between the police and the LGBT community for the past 12 years, will retire from the force this summer.
Tiano, 65, is set to serve his last day on June 29.
At press time, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey had not indicated when a replacement would be named.
Tiano, who has served on the force since age 20, was appointed as the liaison by former Police Chief John Timoney.
“John Timoney had this role of liaison when he was in New York, and he knew that Philadelphia should have something like this as a big city,” Tiano said. “He considered a few people, and since I had been with the Central Division for a lot of years, I’d had a lot of dealings with the gay community. So he asked if I would do it and would form a committee, and that’s how it started way back in ’98.”
Tiano, who was named as the Friend of Pride at last summer’s Pride Parade, also serves as the police liaison to the Asian community, the African-immigrant population and other groups.
“I’ve done a lot of work with diverse communities, and it’s very enjoyable. We’ve had a lot of good rapport with different communities and been able to accomplish some really good things.”
In the past 12 years, Tiano has worked with the Police Liaison Committee to address the concerns of the LGBT community, and he said the working relationship that has developed between the community and the police has been impressive.
“It’s really been about communication,” he said. “If someone has a problem, they call our office, and if I’m not there, they get a hold of me by cell phone. If there’s a rumor going through the community and people want to find things out, they call me and within hours I’ll have the facts of a case. And I’ve been able to seek advice from the community, just from us getting to know each other and becoming allies. It’s been really good to just open up those lines of communication.”
In addition to working to address the specific concerns of the LGBT community, the committee, Tiano and members of his staff have instituted LGBT-training programs for graduates of the Police Academy, recently produced a training DVD and, earlier this year, presented the program for the first time to new members of the department who previously served on other police forces.
Franny Price, who’s served as chair of the committee since December, said Tiano has been an excellent resource for the community.
“I’ve only been chair for half a year, but I’ve worked with him for the past several years, and every time there’s been a situation that I know of, Chief Tiano has responded instantly,” Price said. “We’ve gotten nothing but understanding and concern from the chief. This will be a big loss for our community.”
Price noted that, when a replacement is named, the committee will do its best to acclimate him or her to the community’s needs, but it will be a challenge after having developed such a strong connection with Tiano.
“He’s one of the most accepting people, and just a nice guy. And you know he’s genuine; he’s not going to sit at our meeting and then an hour later go to his fellow officers and say he was at a ‘faggot’ meeting or anything. That’s not his style. He really, really just genuinely cares. It’s been great to have had someone who supports us and understands us. You have to be extremely open-minded, and he always has been.”
The committee, which got wind of the retirement before Tiano made the official announcement, surprised the chief with a party at its monthly meeting May 13.
In addition to the current members, several former committee members were in attendance, which Tiano said he appreciated.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “There were a lot of old members who showed up, and that was really nice. It was just very touching.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].