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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2020)
JULY 3, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 Opinion America: A work in progress days. Those who say the nation is more By LYNDON ZAITZ The American experiment is 244 divided than ever before are forgetting years old this year. The nation, created their history. Some colonists were loy- by uniting 13 very different colonies, alists to the British crown and opposed independence. The divide was developed our Found- over slavery turned broth- ing Fathers who borrowed er against brother. Franklin from other governing sys- Roosevelt’s New Deal leg- tems in history—the Mag- zaitz was not met with na Carta, the Romans and writes islation universal acclaim. Americans the Greeks, to cite a few. have always had disagree- After two and a half ments, even elections don’t centuries, America is still a work in progress, and will likely be, settle them. One side wins this cycle, forever. That’s the beauty of America: the other side will win an upcoming we are not static, we are always chang- cycle. In our republic, political order lies ing. The Founding Fathers believed in a body of citizens entitled to vote for the U.S. Constitution should not be offi cers and representatives beholden set in stone, thus the ability to amend to them. To many of the world’s people, it through legislation and then ratifi - the American model of government is cation by three quarters of the states. the ideal. Change at the ballot box fre- Our Constitution is solid, it has been quently begins with the people taking amended only 27 times; that’s once ev- their ideas into the streets around the country. The Suffragettes, who fought ery 10 years or so. The debate over whether the Con- for women’s right to vote, are not that stitution, as written in the 18th century, far removed from the Black Lives Mat- is open to interpretation by contempo- ter and police reform protesters across rary citizens, goes on. Interpretation of the country. This amazing melting pot has room the Constitution lays at the heart of ev- ery confi rmation by the U.S. Senate for in its 3.7 million square miles to help appointees to the federal court system, those yearning for a better life. How including the Supreme Court. Debate we do that is in the details of legisla- over the meaning of the Constitution tion and debate. America is as grand fuels disagreements on the election and as messy as its people. We need to campaign trail. It is also the source the ensure that all citizens are included in passions recently incited regarding po- the opening phrase of the Constitu- lice actions, race relations and even face tion, “We the people.” We aren’t there masks are rooted in its the country’s yet, but we’re still a work in progress, patriots to a one. founding document. (Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the As Americans, we don’t always agree. That is particularly true these Keizertimes.) KPD chief on policing in Keizer By JOHN TEAGUE In his opinion in the Keizertimes (Current events call for look at policing, June 19), Gene McIntyre rightly said, “It appears timely and appropriate to hear from Chief [John] Teague as to what the people can count on from him and our taxpayer-funded police offi cers….” Though it necessarily requires some unpacking, which I’ll strive to do with- in these 640 words, what you should expect of us is succinctly expressed in our mission statement: Our mission is to help the community maintain order while promoting safety and freedom and building public confi dence. Modern policing began 200 years ago, and the fi rst principle of that fi rst police department (the London Metro- politan Police Force) was that the “ba- sic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.” We at the Keizer Police Department actively try to prevent crime and disorder. We do not carelessly wait for crimes or violations to happen and then numb- ingly compare people’s behavior to a set of laws and ordinances and send to jail or to the courts those who are not in compliance. Applying the law is not among the fi rst things we do or want to do, yet this disposition toward the law is far from common. Most police agencies do not fi rst seek to prevent crime from occurring or recurring. Most agencies measure the performances of their offi cers by, for example, the number of citations they write, the number of arrests they make, the number of calls they handle. Keizer does not. The ninth principle of modern policing is: “The test of police effi ciency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.” Neither does Keizer fi rst police people (except, of course, those per- sons who chronically, repeatedly make problems of themselves). Policing problems, not people, has the supreme- ly important benefi t of being race neutral because offi cers are initially ag- nostic toward the cause of a problem— what is the problem? Not, who is the problem? Combined with Procedural Jus- tice, problem-oriented policing puts the police in a posture of assisting and serving, not of imposing. This should not be overlooked or dismissed as un- important: a police agency is either oriented toward the law and looking for violators, or oriented toward prob- lems and looking for solutions. Note our obligations to the public in these principles of policing—every one is cooperative: - The ability of the police to per- form their duties is dependent upon public approval. - To secure public approval, the po- lice must secure the public’s willing cooperation and voluntary observance of the law. - Public cooperation diminishes proportionately to the use of physical force. - Police preserve public approval, not by catering to public opinion, but by demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law. - Police should maintain a relation- ship with the public that the police are the public and the public are the po- lice; the police being members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incum- bent on every citizen. These principles are 200 years old, yet they’ve rarely been fully exercised. There is an almost unavoidable history, a necessary arc to the 200 years it took for these principles to come to fruition. That history is beyond the scope of this piece, but it does beg two closely relat- ed comments. The fi rst is that the sins of our pre- decessors should not fail to inform our present and future decision-making; subsequently, we should neither erase nor dismiss them and the milieus in which they lived. The second is that there has never been a more appropri- ate time to engage in original policing than right now. Still; many agencies will not because they are neither vested in it nor structured for it. It took medicine 450 years to make the turn from an arguably harmful art to an art informed by science, yet po- licing has only just begun its earnest move toward an evidence base. The move was fi rst attempted 50 years ago, but a misinterpreted experiment left the academics telling themselves and the police that what the police did in response to crime was neither harmful nor helpful, that neither crime preven- tion nor mass arrests could affect the crime rate. Twenty-fi ve years later, re- searchers looked again at that experi- ment and discovered they’d erred, that, in fact, the police can have profound impacts upon crime, people, and their communities. Thus, after 200 years of policing, it’s only been within my ca- reer of 30 years that this nascent redi- rection has begun. Serendipitously, that redirection also includes a prescription for how the police should interact with the public. When I returned to the Keizer Police Department seven years ago, I told the offi cers that I expect them to treat the public the same way I treat them, the offi cers—with Procedural Justice: Treat people with dignity and respect; give them a chance to be heard; convey trustworthy motives; and make reason- able, informed, and transparent deci- sions. This is what you should expect of every important relationship, and it’s what you should expect of your police offi cers. If one relies upon state and national comparisons (which many do), Keiz- er Police Department is allegedly un- derfunded, but we’ve not asked to be staffed with another 19 police offi cers (to meet the state average) or anoth- er 46 (to meet the national). Frankly, if policing is done reactively—that is, if the police only respond to crimes that have already occurred—then you really can’t have enough cops to affect the crime rate. If, however, policing is done as originally designed—to come alongside the community to prevent crime and disorder from happening in the fi rst place—then there is a point of economic stability, a point at which an agency has enough resources to do more than merely react to crime, where it has just enough resources to prevent what crime can be prevented, maintaining the order the community wants but without over-policing it. Keizer, I believe, has struck that bal- ance, but we’ve only done it because we value procedural justice and we’re actively, thoughtfully, purposefully problem-oriented. (John Teague is Chief of the Keizer Police Department) police scanner SUNDAY, JUNE 21 1:13 a.m. - Arrested for attempting to elude police offi cer at the intersection of River Road N. and Cummings Lane N. 4:13 p.m. - Traffi c accident at the inter- section of River Road N. and Sam Or- cutt Way NE. 5:19 p.m. - Traffi c accident in the 5000 block of River Road N. 7 p.m. - Theft from motor vehicle in the 5000 block of Benevan Court NE. 7:29 p.m. - Driving under the infl uence on Homewood Court N. 7:55 p.m. - Restraining order violation in the 1000 block of Dearborn Avenue NE. 8:54 p.m. - Restraining order violation in the 1000 block of River Rock Drive NE. MONDAY. JUNE 22 9:09 a.m. - Graffi ti in the 3000 block of River Road N. 4:18 p.m. - Theft in the 7000 block of Park Terrace Drive NE. 5:39 p.m. - Traffi c accident in the 600 block of Chemawa Road NE. 9:34 p.m. - Vandalism in the 5000 block of River Road N. 11:47 p.m. - Restraining order violation in the 3000 block of River Road N. TUESDAY, JUNE 23 12:29 a.m. - Shoplifting in the 4000 block of River Road N. 5:02 a.m. - Burglary and criminal tres- passing in the 2000 block of Allendale Way NE. 6:14 p.m. - Unlawful possession of meth- amphetamine on River Road N. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 2:08 a.m. - Aggravated assault in the 4000 block of River Road N. 2:30 p.m. - Vandalism in the 1000 block of Marigold Street NE. 6:19 p.m. - Telephonic harassment in the 4000 block of Rickman Road NE. THURSDAY, JUNE 25 1 a.m. - Theft from motor vehicle and unlawful entry to vehicle in the 1000 block of Meadowlark Drive NE. 8:38 a.m. - Theft from motor vehicle in the 1000 block of Carilor Court NE. 10:58 a.m. - Residence burglary in the 1000 block of Marigold Street NE. 12:50 p.m. - Theft from motor vehicle in the 1000 block of Zachris Court NE. 1:31 p.m. - Physical harassment in the 4000 block of River Road N. 6:47 p.m. - Failure to perform duties of driver when property was damaged in the 1000 block of Candlewood Drive NE. FRIDAY, JUNE 26 2 a.m. - Residence burglary in the 1000 block of Mistwood Drive NE. 7:13 a.m. - Unlawful entry to vehicle in the 1000 block of Zachris Court NE. 12 p.m. - Theft from motor vehicle and unlawful entry to vehicle in the 100 block of McNary Estates Drive N. 1:35 p.m. - Warrant served in the 4000 block of River Road N. 9:30 p.m. - Fraud use of credit card and unlawful entry to vehicle in the 6000 block of Wheatland Road N. 9:45 p.m. - Vandalism at Apple Blossom Avenue NE. 11:45 p.m. - Driving under the infl uence at the intersection of Verda Lane NE. and Alder Drive NE. SATURDAY, JUNE 27 12:30 a.m. - Motor vehicle theft in the 1000 block of Fir Cone Drive NE. 2:04 p.m. - Theft from motor vehicle in the 7000 block of Parkplace Drive NE. 3:02 p.m. - Theft from motor vehicle in the 700 block of Lakefair Circle N. 10:25 p.m. - Vandalism in the 700 block of Dearborn Avenue N. SUNDAY, JUNE 28 12:25 a.m. - Failure to perform duties of driver when property was damaged at the intersection of Churchdale Avenue N. and River Road N. 9:11 a.m. - Restraining order violation in the 6000 block of 14th Avenue NE. 11:16 a.m. - Burglary in the 6000 block of Wheatland Road N. 8:54 p.m. - Motor vehicle theft in the 5000 block of River Road N. MONDAY, JUNE 29 1:22 a.m. - Arrested for assault in the 600 block of Rose Park Lane NE. 5:05 a.m. - Motor vehicle theft in the 1000 block of Clearview Avenue NE. 19-year-old arrested in DUII crash A 19-year-old Salem man, ac- cused of driving under the infl u- ence of intoxicants, tried to elude a Keizer police offi cer on River Road North and ended up wrap- ping his Jeep around a tree. The incident began about 1:15 a.m. Sunday, June 21, a Keizer po- lice offi cer saw the driver of a silver Jeep Patriot drive through a stop sign in the southeast Keizer and at- tempted to initiate a traffi c stop. Instead of stopping, the driver hit the gas and sped away blowing through a second stop sign. The pursuing offi cer lost sight of the vehicle as it traveled north on Cherry Avenue Northeast. Not long afterward, the vehicle was discovered in the 4500 block of River Road North having crashed through a utility pole and into a tree. Salem Electric was called to the Submitted A driver attempting to elude police crashed into a utility pole and then a tree near Arby’s on River Road North. scene and ensured that the driver could safely be removed from his vehicle. He received non-life-threatening injuries in the crash. Christian Salinas-Tolento was taken crossword to Salem Hospital where he was cit- ed for attempting to elude an offi cer, reckless driving, driving under the infl uence of intoxicants, and criminal mischief. His bail was set at $30,000.
