Editorial: Greensburg chief's resignation after charges was a service

On Tuesday, Shawn Denning embarrassed the people of Greensburg when he was arrested at City Hall on federal drug charges.

He immediately did what may have been the best service he offered to those same people.

He resigned as the chief of police.

Denning, 41, is free on $250,000 unsecured bond pending resolution of his case, in which he is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine, three counts of aiding and abetting the distribution of methamphetamine as well as conspiring to distribute controlled drugs.

It would be impossible for Greensburg to adequately conduct police business with a chief accused of an ongoing pattern of crimes from June 2021 to October 2022.

It would taint every arrest. It would threaten every conviction. It would leave everyone questioning the work that was being done. It would be unfair to the people of Greensburg and would threaten the reputations of every officer who served alongside him.

And forcing the city to suspend him until the case was concluded would compound that problem. It would be a slowly pulled bandage that extended the pain by drawing out the process. Denning’s resignation ripped the bandage all at once in one excruciating movement.

Denning must be afforded the same courtesy of every defendant. He must be presumed innocent until or unless proven guilty. That is important for the court as well as the press and the public.

But that doesn’t mean the very act of bringing the charges doesn’t damage trust. It does. The people who police our streets have an obligation to do so ethically and morally. The burden they carry isn’t just about danger. It is about responsibility — with the weapons they carry, with the authority they wield and to the people they represent.

It was just weeks ago that officers from across the region and the state gathered to honor the ultimate sacrifice of one of their own after Brackenridge’s police Chief Justin McIntire was killed in the line of duty. He was ambushed and died serving his people.

Now, Greensburg has lost a chief, too. It’s a very different wound that won’t come with his brothers in uniform standing side by side, saluting him. It will at best be quietly final and at worst shamefully loud.