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Message from Mayor Kapszukiewicz
I have been watching what has transpired across the country,
in Ohio, and within the city of Toledo during the past week,
and my heart goes out to everyone impacted by the issues of
racism and police brutality.
I support the protesters across America who have taken a
stand against the great injustice and tragedy that happened
to 46-year-old George Floyd, whose life was snatched away
needlessly by men who betrayed their oaths as police
officers to protect and serve.
I also support the calls for real reform to police
operations across America -- as well as better training and
higher standards -- for police officers. Generally speaking,
I believe our police department gets it right more often
than it gets it wrong. But we know we can do better.
As good as TPD has been over the years, we always strive for
perfection. That is why I announced a number of reforms this
week intended to bring further transparency and
accountability to our policing efforts. We will move
Internal Affairs out of the Safety Building so residents
will feel more comfortable if they need to issue a complaint
against one of our officers; we are opening for public
review (through both video technology and in-person visits)
the training we offer to our police officers on diversity,
sensitivity, and de-escalation; we are strengthening the
oversight provided by the Civilian Police Review Board; and
we have made public our Bias-Free Police Study, our citizen
survey, and our Toledo Police handbook.
The #8cantwait campaign was launched this week, calling for
eight use-of-force policies that could decrease police
violence by up to 70 percent. You can learn more about it at
8cantwait.org. I can tell you that Toledo Police are already
trained on all eight. And we are revising the department
manual to reflect that our officers are already trained on
all eight.
Even though Toledo has seen nothing but peaceful protests
over the last six days and nights, I know many people are
concerned about the violence that took place last Saturday
night. I participated in both protests last Saturday,
because I believe that now is the time to bring change to
police-community relations.
While I support peaceful protests, I don’t support violence.
I don’t support violence when it is directed by a protester
toward a police officer, nor do I support it when it is
directed by a police officer toward a protester. I am asking
anyone who attended the protest Saturday who has concerns
about violence they saw, to report it to
TPDconcerns@toledo.oh.gov.
We are looking at everything.
The city safety director and I are both personally reviewing
all of the messages. So far, we have received almost 150
messages into this email account. If you have not received a
reply yet, please be patient. We will review every photo and
every video in our attempt to figure out why an otherwise
peaceful protest in the afternoon turned violent by sundown.
Finally, Former President Barack Obama and My Brother's
Keeper Alliance issued a challenge this week to mayors
across America to review use of force policies, engage with
their community in that review, make findings public for
feedback, and create reforms based on that review. We have
already begun doing these things, and that is why I signed
that pledge today, which can be found at obama.org/mayor-pledge/.
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