Op-Ed: New police chief must address culture of distrust

By Tom Hanks

Last week, Elaine Bryant was introduced by Mayor Andrew J. Ginther as Columbus’ new chief of police.

Bryant has 21 years of law enforcement experience under her belt, joining the Detroit Police Department in 2000 as a cadet.

Of the 25 largest cities in America, she is one of three women to lead the police department, joining two other women of color in Phoenix and Philadelphia.

Her toughest job, however, will not be to ensure the safety of the almost 900,000 people who call Columbus home – but will Instead be to facilitate “reconciliation” between officers and the city’s Black and Latinx populations.

The 111-page report Research Evaluation of the City of Columbus’ Response to the 2020 Summer Protest cost $250,000 to commission, and spelled out in no uncertain terms, the broken relationship between Columbus’ Black and Latinx communities and Columbus police officers.

The report recommended “reconciliation” and “increased training on deescalation and procedural justice,” but how exactly can reconciliation be accomplished between a community that has been hurt by police actions and a police department, who for decades, has had a tense relationship with communities of color in Columbus?

That trust is not going to come with pretty and eloquent words from the mayor, or a simple changing of the guard, as some are hoping.

If nothing changes, what was it all for? Why did the city spend $250,000 of taxpayer’s money to publish a document that clearly was not worth the paper it was printed on?

During the hiring process, Mayor Ginther repeatedly said he wants the city’s next police chief to be a “change agent.”

That change is needed, and needed now.

A major change in culture, and policing at large, are the only two ways to fix the broken relationship between the police and the people.