Chief Sterns is the blustery, ineffective New York City police chief of department in the New Line Cinema film series. He appeared in the first movie, and in one scene of the second movie.
History[]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 film)[]
He was unable to deal with the crime wave occurring in the city. Unlike April O'Neil, the chief doubts the Foot Clan exists, failing to see any connection between events that happened in Japan years ago and current crimes happening all the way across the world in the United States, reasoning that there must be more concrete evidence needed to link the events.
When confronting April in his office after his interview with her, Sterns angrily asks her "Just what is it you hope to accomplish out there, besides BUSTING MY CHOPS?!", and she answers "I think you know just as much as I do about this Foot Clan and I don't think you're doing anything about it", leading Sterns to angrily state "You expect me to waste precious manpower because a few immigrants are reminded of something that supposedly happened years ago in Japan?!" When April asks him if he had anything else to say, Sterns furiously yells, "Are you trying to tell me how to DO MY JOB?!"
Later on, one of his men arrests Daniel Pennington for shoplifting. Chief Sterns makes a deal with Charles Pennington of Channel 3. He asks Pennington to get April O'Neil off the issue of the Clan robberies. In exchange, Chief Sterns will agree to go easy on the kid.
Despite his bombast, Chief Sterns and his men ultimately do put an end to the crime wave when many teenagers from the Clan defect and direct the NYPD to "the warehouse east of Lairdman Avenue" to recover the stolen goods. With knowledge of the Clan indeed proven, the NYPD is now better prepared to combat the robberies.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze[]
In the second film, Chief Sterns is of a calmer nature, but still reluctant to advertise all problems. After the destruction of a city quarter by Rahzar and Tokka, workmen are repairing the damage and rebuilding the following morning. The NYPD covers the scene, and Chief Sterns insists the damage was minimal. April questions him about claw and tooth marks, and Sterns is shocked she knows of those irregular signs. However, this time April agrees with Sterns that this story needs to be kept under wraps, partly due to insufficient investigation, the publicity of Tokka and Rahzar could cause panic among the citizenry, and also the police being ill-equipped to deal with them anyway.