Archives for August 2020

Over the coming weeks we will be releasing a comprehensive series of information pertaining to our police department and its operations. The first in our four-part release focuses on police officer training; traffic stop demographics; our work with the Ohio Collaborative; and a Detective Bureau Report. Future series will include information on organizational structure; property crime statistics; arrests; calls for service; vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle safety and accident data; use of force statistics; citizen complaint data; officer recruitment and officer diversity; drug task force data; and community engagement. We will do our best to release a new series in each Blast over the coming weeks.  

In releasing our community policing report, we reaffirm our Police Department’s commitment to Fairness, Integrity, Respect, and Empathy in policing, and our corresponding mission and vision for equitable policing.  

Fairness means the fair and impartial treatment of others; adapting to each new circumstance with professionalism and common sense.

Integrity means the honest and ethical performance of our duties; the acceptance of full accountability for our actions. Doing the right thing, the right way, at the right time.

Respect means a respect for the law and respect for the human dignity of all people.

Empathy means the importance of seeing things from the other person’s point of view. The ability to be sensitive to the feelings of the people we serve.

We listen intently to feedback from the community, and while we believe the majority of our encounters with residents of all backgrounds live up to our mission statement, we also know that when they haven’t it is our moral obligation to learn from these experiences and grow as an agency and as a community. Even as we’ve put in place reforms and action items over the past several years in this space, we know and acknowledge that we must continue to listen, learn, adjust, and grow.  

The conversation about equity and policing in Bexley has been active and vibrant, and in some cases it has become an incredibly divisive topic in our neighborhoods and on social media. I understand the deep passions that have been expressed by residents on both ‘sides’ of this issue.

I want to encourage us all to reframe this conversation to move beyond a binary, two-sided conversation, and into a holistic, 360 degree conversation that will lead to deeper understanding and greater empathy.

It is true that the Bexley Police Department is full of a professional, deeply caring staff of officers that perform their work, day in and day out, with a high degree of empathy and community-oriented policing. It is true that our officers provide an essential service to our community, and that so many of us have benefited from their selfless service and their tendency to routinely go above and beyond the call of duty. It is also true that there are entire sectors of our population in Bexley and throughout America that have grown up under the shadow of systemic racism, much of which has manifested itself in the form of consciously and unconsciously biased police policy and practice. It is also true that citizens have had stark and traumatizing experiences with Bexley police officers, where they have felt targeted, or felt that the treatment they received was vastly different than the treatment that is given to non-minority citizens. Some of these experiences have piled up over the generations, others have occurred in our present day.

We like to think that all of the training, careful recruitment, and attentiveness to complaints and feedback will quickly lead to perfect interactions and desirable outcomes all around.  But we know that the dynamics that have been forged over decades – even centuries – will take time, patience, and a super-human amount of empathy and deep understanding on all sides. We know that we will continue to make mistakes. But our overwhelming commitment is that we will continue to learn from those mistakes, and in learning we will grow, and heal, and so better inform our conduct and relationships in the future. Black Lives Matter. Systemic racism is real. We love and support our police officers for their sacrifice, competency, and community mindedness. These are all things that can be true together, and in recognizing the inherent tensions and the bountiful ways in which we can grow together as a community, we will grow together as a community.

There will be statistics and data in the reports being released that will engender yet still more conversation.  There will be, I think, information that is new and fresh and helpful to all of our community. Through all of it, we are committed to looking honestly at our practices, continuing to operate in good faith, trusting and learning from the voices of those who have experienced trauma through policing, and continuing to correct injustice when we see it and to lift up integrity when it is demonstrated.  

Thank you to the men and women of the Bexley Police Department for their dedication and steadfast service, even as policing is more fraught and at times misunderstood than ever. Thank you to you – our community – for reaching out and sharing your concerns and your passions around the topics of equity and policing. Please take the time to fill out this reaction survey as you absorb the information we are sending out over the coming weeks; we want to learn from your feedback not just what data to provide and how to provide it, but any other insights you have about policing in Bexley.  

Take good care, and be well – 

Mayor Ben Kessler