A series of high-profile police-related deaths over the past year has sparked national outrage and calls for reform: body cameras for all officers, greater transparency in law enforcement, and more cultural and diversity training for police.
To their credit, the Toledo Police Department and Lucas County Sheriff’s Office have, so far, responded well. County Sheriff John Tharp announced last week that he has equipped his patrol officers with body cameras. TPD will phase in body cameras over the next two years.
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In addition, Toledo Police Chief George Kral has started holding regular community forums. His department is inviting diverse community members to speak to police academy classes.
Chief Kral made another significant move to improve community relations last week. He told The Blade’s deputy editorial page editor, Jeff Gerritt, that he plans to offer Toledo police officers incentives to move into the city, such as providing monthly stipends or arranging low-interest housing loans.
Nearly half of TPD’s more than 600 sworn officers now live outside Toledo. More than half of the department’s force works in field operations or patrol shifts, according to figures provided by TPD spokesman Lt. Joseph Heffernan.
Residency gives officers a greater stake in the community. It deepens their understanding of the city’s people and problems, builds relations with residents, and increases visibility in neighborhoods.
By building trust and credibility, residency helps make police officers more effective in fighting and preventing crime. Moreover, the collateral benefits of residency to a large central city with a declining population and tax base are obvious.
Cities across the country, including Toledo, have abandoned once-common residency rules, as courts have struck down such requirements in municipal employee contracts. Nothing, however, precludes police departments from encouraging officers to live in the city.
Residency stipends for officers are not uncommon. The city of Ferguson, Mo., after last August’s shooting of an unarmed teenager by a white officer, committed to increasing monthly stipends — from $100 to $300 — for officers who live in the city. In 2011, Detroit started to help its police officers buy tax-foreclosed homes in solid neighborhoods.
Residency is important to many Toledoans. In interviews with Mr. Gerritt for his column in today’s Blade on police-community relations, African-American men in Toledo, ages 19 to 62, said they want officers to live in the city that they police.
“When officers live in the same city, it adds a layer of accountability to their actions,” said Travis Williams, 42.
Too often, said Albert Earl, Jr., 49, “the people policing our communities aren’t from our communities, and most of them don’t have a clue as to how to engage young African-American men.”
Any residency incentives, Chief Kral said, would have to be approved by the police officers’ union, mayor, and City Council. Therefore, pay incentives would have to wait until the current police contract expires at the end of 2018.
The mayor and council should approve money used for incentives, but it’s unclear whether the department needs to get union approval for a benefit above and beyond the current contract. Chief Kral ought to clarify that issue with city attorneys and, if possible, move forward with incentives now.
That said, Chief Kral, who has been in office five months, deserves enormous credit for taking on an important issue that his predecessors ignored. By proposing modest financial incentives for officers to move from the suburbs to the city, he sent a powerful and constructive message to Toledo police officers that their city, community, and chief value residency and its numerous benefits to community policing and relations.
First Published April 26, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
