Integrity, that’s the ticket
Published 8:02 pm Friday, August 9, 2013
We recently asked primary election candidates about local budget priorities. Their answers didn’t vary much: Police officers. Deputies. Law enforcement. Public safety.
Let’s point out that none of them bothered to say well-trained deputies. Or competent police officers. Or trustworthy law enforcement. Certain assumptions go without saying.
Expectations for police conduct are so high that even isolated cases of misbehavior or impaired judgment evoke a high degree of distress and disapproval. Lake Stevens has endured an immoderate string of troubles with its police force. These have ranged from puzzling to discouraging, from embarrassing to expensive. After one unfortunate episode, the city paid $100,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit.
The good news is that Lake Stevens seems determined to fix things. Last week, interim Police Chief Dan Lorentzen said his department will create an Office of Professional Standards to investigate complaints against officers and make disciplinary recommendations.
Along with this announcement, the city has modified its training procedures to ensure that officers clearly understand what the rules are — and what punishments await those who break them. And it has made it easier for citizens to come forward with complaints, even if they are skittish about signing their names.
The idea of dedicating specific resources to buttressing professional conduct is both a practical and symbolic move.
If ethics and proper behavior are genuinely important, enforcement can’t be an afterthought or an add-on to a supervisor’s job description. The responsibility needs to sit squarely on someone’s shoulders. And while Lake Stevens has yet to decide how much it will spend on the Office of Professional Standards, the creation of this division demonstrates things will not be “business as usual.”
As City Administrator Jan Berg said last week: “It was a good time to show the public we knew we had some issues to work on.”
There are too many recent examples in our region in which public offices — and not just police departments — had to be dragged kicking and clawing to the realization that they had problems with integrity and trust. Lake Stevens’ decisive action parallels the Herald’s recommendation that Snohomish County appoint an official ombudsman following former Executive Aaron Reardon’s damaging reign over county government.
Yes, it is a good thing for a police department to be accountable to its community. It is equally useful for the community to take ownership of its police department. Tonight, Lake Stevens residents can attend a meeting with candidates for the police chief’s job. The session will be 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the school district administration building, 12309 22nd St. NE.
