On George Floyd & the Mission of Policing

By Guest

By Police Chief Ken Berkowitz

Today, I write with a heavy heart over the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing aftermath. After watching the video of the detainment, I, like every police officer I know, was struck to the core over what transpired. It was especially painful for me to watch since it is so contrary to how we are trained as Canton police officers. This type of restraint is not consistent with the practices in our profession. It also defies how police officers are hardwired to preserve lives at all costs, including laying down our own if called upon to do so.

Chief Ken Berkowitz

I am angry at the people who chose to desecrate Mr. Floyd’s memory by turning the positive, peaceful protests into looting, rioting and destroying people’s property. I’m confident that groups of fringe players hijacked and harnessed the energy of well-intentioned activity into senseless violence. As Martin Luther King once said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I am well aware that race in this country is complex and is always a tinderbox waiting for the smallest spark to set it off. As your chief for the past 15-plus years, we have worked hard to build a department that treats everyone with respect and dignity. In fact, one of the first things I did was to rewrite our mission statement to spell this out exactly. There is no guessing or confusion on where we stand on this issue. However, I know words are cheap, so please measure me and measure us by our actions. Our officers are kind, dedicated and compassionate. They deliver police services as fair and impartially as humanly possible. We know one of the most important responsibilities that we have is to care for the people who are in our custody. We realize that it is a huge responsibility to take someone’s freedom away and we use this option judicially and only as a last resort. When we are forced to exercise this last option, we are well aware that we are fully responsible for their health and safety until the time they are released.

As a department, we have trained in discovering our unconscious biases and learned why it’s so important for officers to check them at the door when arriving for duty. I’m proud that even with civil service constraints; we have built one of the most diverse departments’ town wide. However, we have a long way to go. We will continue to work hard to reflect our community. Not just by skin color, but also by gender, religion and sexual orientation. Our outreach programs are strong and our School Resource Officer (SRO) program is the most robust in our area. Our SRO’s have positive interactions at every school on a daily basis. Their main mission is to build understanding and trust with students at an early age. Our Canton High School and Blue Hills Regional High School SRO’s continue to mentor and help young men and women find their way safely through their teen years. They are an integral part of the school community and the students’ lives.

I know there will always be people who are part of the law enforcement community who should not be. I know I will continue to cringe when I see something disturbing. What I can control is what we do here, collectively, in Canton. How we interact with our citizens and how we provide professional police services. I know I speak for our entire department when I tell you, we are fully committed to serving you and we chose this profession to help people. We don’t care what color you are, who you pray to or who you love. Perhaps John F. Kennedy said it best when describing our commonalities and how interdependent we all are on each other, “We all inhabit this small planet, we all cherish our children’s future and we are all mortal.” Our thoughts and prayers are with George Floyd’s family and all the people that have been injured or affected as a result of his senseless death.

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