Last week, Pam Sohn, opinion editor of the Times Editorial Page, interviewed Mayor Tim Kelly about policing and other issues. Here is a transcript, edited for clarity and brevity, of the conversation about policing:
Q: Former Chief Fred Fletcher seeded a lot of neighborhood policing here. David Roddy continued it. What’s your take on that kind of policing?
A: I’m an advocate and proponent of that. I got to know Fred pretty well through the course of the campaign … I did a lot of reading on community policing. And through the literature I came to really appreciate Fred’s perspective and dedication to the model.
I wish we had Fred back, to be frank with you. And I’ve tried to talk him into coming back, and there’s a part of Fred I think would love to come back. He and Roddy are very close, and Roddy has done an admirable job of keeping the torch lit. That is very much what we’re looking to do.
[On the new police chief search] Fred pointed this out to me: We have a situation here where it’s not a dumpster fire, where we have two former chiefs – neither of them have left under protest or conflict … It’s not a situation where we’re in this disaster reaction pendulum situation. Rather it is one where we’ve got great philosophical continuity on which we want to continue, and they will be involved in the search process.