Private jailhouse visit to fire chief charged in child sex case becomes very public for neighboring chief. Largo's Mike Wallace explains his meeting with Jamie Geer.

Previous coverage of Jamie Geer’s arrest

This is a good reminder for all in public life that what you do on your own time, can and will reflect on your official role. Perception is important. 

In this case from Florida, Largo Fire Chief Mike Wallace paid an off-duty visit to someone he worked closely with for five years, former Clearwater Chief Jamie Geer. That visit occurred just before Christmas in the Pinellas County Jail where Geer has spent his days and nights since his December arrest on charges of years-long sexual abuse of a young girl. 

For many, reaching out to someone you know who has fallen, is considered the right and moral thing to do. Humane is how Chief Wallace described it to St. Petersburg Times reporter Anne Lindberg. You will get no argument from me. I have known people who I think very highly of who have done the same thing with friends facing similar circumstances. But when you are talking these type of charges, it is understandable that emotions run very high. 

When word got out of the chief’s trip to the jail, controversy erupted. Some thought it wasn’t appropriate for Largo’s fire chief to make  such a visit. Those complaints filtered back to Chief Wallace. The chief could have easily just ignored it and said it is no one’s business what I do in my private life. But he didn’t. 

I don’t know Chief Wallace or Chief Geer or have any inside information, but from my perspective reading a newspaper article, Chief Wallace did a very smart thing. He addressed the issued head on. Here’s what he told reporter Lindberg: 

Wallace said he didn’t feel he had to justify his visit, but needed to quell the controversy that had arisen in his department when word of his visit spread. It was important, he said, that people understood what was said and “more importantly, what I didn’t say” during the visit. 

Chief Wallace did so in an email to his department. Here it is: 

“Although I do not need to explain my reasons to anyone but my own conscience, I am aware that there has been negative reaction to my decision. 

“I did not go to see Jamie Geer because I approved of his actions. I think everyone and anyone who knows me understands my personal integrity. However this is an individual who I have spent five years working side by side both for and against the same issues. 

“It was important to ME that after 72 hours in solitary confinement, without any contact and unsure of what he was facing that he knew he was not all alone. I did not discuss the reason he was there nor did I offer any words of consolation. I told him he should not expect visitors from his department, and no other fire chiefs were going to visit him. I did not offer him assistance and did not provide him with any comforting words. 

“From the perspective of a human being he deserved that much. I am sure that each of you are eager to judge what should happen to him. I have my own feelings about what is deserved. That does not negate the moral and ethical responsibilities we have to other human beings. We are not him. We are better.”