CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — The top cop in Circleville said that his department is adapting every day to the new challenges that face law enforcement in an ever-growing society.
In an exclusive tour of the police department, Chief Shawn Baer gave the Guardian rare access and a sit-down interview.
Wearing more relaxed clothing than your typical chief, Baer showed the Guardian around the building, introducing officers and detectives, and showing technology that the department uses on a daily basis. Officers are instructed to call the chief by his first name, and not by his title; fellow officers are also all on a first-name basis with each other. This relaxed environment, according to Baer, is part of the new era of law enforcement.
“We have a young department; we have a lot of lateral transfers [officers coming from other departments],” Baer said. “It brings great people with new ideas and new concepts. It also creates a blended family environment. We all have different ways of doing things….it takes strong supervision to make that all blend the right way.”
Speaking of supervision, the department recently promoted four people among their ranks: two sergeants, a captain, and a deputy chief.
“Hire good people, train them well, and hold everyone accountable,” Baer said while sitting at a meeting room table in his office with the door wide open. “The best way to keep officers from doing bad things is to hire good people. If you do those three things, things are going to work out.”
Part of the success in holding those employees accountable, Baer said, is that every day, each officer has to take a quiz for a department policy question. Circleville is only the third department in the state to implement the program in an effort to keep officers abreast of what they can-and-can’t do. It was only recently, the chief said, that the department got a new policy and procedure manual. He admits that this is something that should have been done a long time ago.
“Being short-staffed so long, things have been addressed that had not been.”
Among those things being addressed: restructuring, and Baer said only one body is responsible for fixing it.
“The community loves to support us. They are great to us …. we have to guide the new hires, teach them the right way, and have to teach them that everyone is not bad. If everyone was bad, we would not have had a levy that passed.”
The department is still fielding applicants to fill vacant positions — many of which are young officers fresh out of the academy, and while the department is continuing to grow, there are some positions that the department doesn’t have, that one day, the chief says, he hopes to see.
“If you have a kid that is in need, as a police officer, maybe we’re not the right one to sit down and talk to them…. a social worker, that is what I would like to have as a resource.”
Comments are closed.