Committed to People, Committed to Excellence, Committed to Service

Good afternoon dear reader,

I’m not sure when you might see this piece, but I am writing at the behest of a friend and colleague. This will be somewhat free flowing.

First, I would like to thank all of you who have taken the opportunity to thank me for my stories. As many of you know, I try to flavor my musings with humor during these patently difficult times. I sincerely hope that these have brought at least a brief respite to your day.

Sadly, today part of my world is blowing up. Not here in Franklin or at the PD. Not here in New Hampshire or New England…but in another part of the country.

Before I pen a few comments, it is very important that you know I cannot and will not publicly judge what is happening outside of my sphere of influence. I must also say that as a professional who has willingly devoted more than half his life to the profession of law enforcement, I am deeply wounded by all that I (like you) have seen and heard. I also (like you) have to consciously remind myself that I do not know all the facts. What I have seen is certainly damning, but those involved, on all sides, must be allowed to state their case(s). I truly believe our (at times flawed) system is still the best in the world and that it is the tenuous, but needed line between law and lawlessness.

I have lived and worked within our system of laws and justice for more than 40 years and I believe I have seen (and in some cases experienced) the best and the worst…at EVERY level.

With incidents occurring elsewhere in our country that are, at best negative in nature, I find myself asking questions for which there seem to be no obvious answers. What some of you may not know is that I have been a bone fide student of human behavior since I was 17. And yet, even today, I cannot wrap my mind around some of what I have seen and experienced in life.

Like others, I often have to draw a very real distinction between explanation and excuse. For example, given that state of knowledge we have today, I can explain the behavior of a child molester, but I cannot excuse such behavior.

I may have mentioned at some point that many years ago I was invited to present grand rounds to the emergency psychiatric staff at what was then Boston City Hospital. The subject was the “police personality”. I was caught short by the invitation. I looked in the mirror and wondered if I was different from non-police people.  “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?". - (William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Act III, scene I).

Allow me to share a few general statistics about American police. The numbers are fluid but there are about 800,000 police officers in a country of 329,000,000 people. More than 50% of the police departments in our country are small or perhaps medium in size (like Franklin). A police officer dies in the line of duty every 53 hours. There are 50,000 – 55,000 assaults on police officers every year and 10% of those officers leave the profession as a result. These may or may not mean anything relative to what is going on around all of us today, but when and after becoming police officers, what we do is because we want to, not because we have to.

We are your neighbors and friends. Our children go to school with yours. Our kids play after school with yours. We shop with you. We sit next to you in restaurants. We are perfectly imperfect like you.

Since day one, I was taught and have chosen to live by the credo that a police officer is a leader in the community. More than 10 years ago I brought this philosophy and practice with me to this great City. I go to sleep with it every night and wake up with it every morning.

Woven into this fabric are the beliefs that each and every being is to be treated with dignity and respect. Everyone is to be given their “day in court”. Of course, there will always be those who disagree with me for one reason or another and I am always available to discuss such matters.

These are the inviolable messages I have given to every member of this department. It is a promise I make to every person who lives or visits Franklin. These are not hung up with the uniform at the end of shift. These are a way of life.

It would be ludicrous for me to say that there are not serious challenges to any or all of the above. An important part of our job is to meet these head on and successfully resolve any personal or professional issues that present themselves.

While I can ponder and question the incidents that are occurring around us, I want to assure everyone that as long as I am your Police Chief, there will always be transparency and accountability on the part of your police department.

Hate and prejudice are ugly words. It is very easy to hate a person or a group. It is very hard not to hate when we are fed a diet of vitriol about a person or people. It is very difficult to see all sides and then decide how to feel. These are daily challenges, no matter who or what we are.

I can only ask that everyone take the time to consider all the facts as they become available. It will be trying and painful. Experience teaches us that no matter what the outcome, some will be more than dissatisfied. These are slices of the human condition. Let’s continue to earn our place at the top of the developmental scale.

Please be well and be safe. Spend time with those who are most important. And always be assured, at least from this old police officer, here at the Franklin Police Department, we do live by our motto every day, “Committed to People  Committed to Excellence  Committed to Service”.