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Disparities in the
criminal justice system have had a devastating impact on
people of color and decimated black and brown communities
throughout the United States. People of color continue to be
policed, charged, sentenced and incarcerated compared to
their white counterparts.
The impact of the system’s
disparate policies and practices have resulted in lack of
equal access to jobs, housing, education and a myriad of
other public benefits and universal rights, leading many to
declare criminal justice reform as the “civil rights issue
of the 21st century.”
The choice for the top cop
– Lucas County Sheriff – not only occupies the center of
one of our most competitive local political campaigns, but
is also, perhaps, the most prominent battle in the war for
justice and equality in Toledo, Ohio.
Recently, I had the
opportunity to speak one-on-one with Robert Navarre, a
candidate for Lucas County Sheriff. Since 2012, Navarre has
served as Chief of Police for the city of Oregon. Prior to
that time, he was Chief of Police for the city of Toledo.
Perryman:
Please talk about your experience. This is not your first
rodeo.
Navarre: No, I’ve been a
chief of police for 21 years. I was selected as chief in
Toledo by Mayor Finkbeiner in 1998 after serving three years
as a deputy chief. I left Toledo in 2011 and three months
later I was hired as the chief of police in Oregon.
Perryman: Any other
experiences?
Navarre: I’ve been
involved in several boards at the state level through the
Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police. In 2014, I was put on
a state-wide task force chaired by Nina Turner to improve
police-community relations in the state. That was in the
aftermath of several very controversial shootings that had
occurred across the country, two in Ohio, Tamir Rice in
Cleveland and John Crawford III who was killed in Beaver
Creek.
I’ve also been on the
Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for 21 years and serve
on the committee for the Re-entry Coalition of Northwest
Ohio helping to make the transition for inmates back into
society, try to find them housing, try to take care of
blocks on their driver’s licenses, try to take care of any
outstanding warrants, get them job training.
Perryman: One of the major
tasks for whoever is elected as Sheriff will be dealing with
a jail that is obsolete. So far, we’ve had difficulty
getting a new one built.
Navarre: Well they’re not
going to be able to build one in a neighborhood. I think
that was a bad decision from the get-go. You’ve got to build
it vertically downtown if you can find enough land to build
it. People would accept a prison in a neighborhood because
people go in and at some point they come out and when they
come out there’s somebody waiting for them or there’s
transportation waiting for them. A county jail, however,
there are people that go in that door and out that door 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. You can’t have that in a
neighborhood. There’s not somebody there waiting to pick
those people up, there’s people looking for transportation,
they’re looking for money and there’s houses and those
people that live in that neighborhood in proximity to a
county jail are vulnerable and plus the whole problem with
being close to the courts, that’s valid.
Perryman: In any event, it
will take time to build a new jail. So, how do you deal with
the inadequacies of the existing facility?
Navarre: That building
has to be made presentable. Elevators have to work, it has
to be cleaned, you can do that with detergent, you can do
that with paint. Plumbing has to work; it has to be
secure. That’s not a debate, those are things that have to
be done.
Perryman: One of the
challenges that you would be facing is operational
inefficiencies which has caused the budget to get out of
control. How do you get those numbers back in line?
Navarre: A lot of it is
overtime, they’ve got a lot of issues there. They have
employees that call in sick a lot, so instead of paying
people straight time wages they’re paying time and a half
wages like every day. I know that there are some potential
fixes that could work to reduce sick time. First of all,
you have to hold the employees accountable, you can’t let
them do what they’re doing in terms of you call in sick one
day and I’ll call in sick the next day and we both get time
and a half, that has to end. But there’s a possibility of
looking at expanded shifts, 10-hour shifts or 12-hour shifts
have been proven to reduce sick time because it gives
employees extra days off.
I’m a firm believer in
treating your employees right. You have to create an
environment where people want to come to work and enjoy
their jobs. You have to treat employees fairly and you have
to give promotions based on merit. You don’t want to do
things that just make employees distrusting of the
administration and you’ve got to give them a voice. Whoever
gets elected has to go in and listen, has to visit every
department, every floor, every section and spend time with
the employees and find out what they do and ask them how can
this job be done better?
Perryman: What are your
thoughts on diversity? How diverse is Oregon?
Navarre: Any law
enforcement agency should reflect the community it serves
and there’s a lot of reasons for that and you know what
those reasons are.
In terms of diversity, my
challenge is getting minority candidates and women to get on
Oregon’s list, then they can get a chance to be interviewed
by me, do a background and get selected. If I can’t get
them on the list, if all I got is white males on a list,
then that’s all I’m going to be able to hire. Right now,
it’s difficult everywhere, because police officer
applications are down and it’s a problem everywhere. The
city itself is like 1.5% African American, not very
diverse. But we have a lot of big box stores that draw
customers from North Toledo and East Toledo where there’s a
lot of minorities. So, it’s very important that we increase
that diversity.
Perryman: You know when you
were chief you and I met concerning shootings and other
deaths of African Americans by law enforcement. What have
you learned from those incidents?
Navarre: My very first
year on the job, 1998 into 1999, I had six officer involved
shootings, I can tell you about each one of them because
that was a difficult year. Anyway, what have I learned?
You have to be transparent. You have to make sure that they
are properly investigated and that you get all the facts.
Now we are very fortunate in 2020 versus 1998 when I took
over that all of our officers are wearing body cams in
Toledo, Oregon, been doing it for years. New people that we
hire, the cars have dash-cam videos, you have audio.
I used to get challenged
in Toledo of how many officers lost their jobs during my
tenure and I had a list that was probably about 25 officers
long and that’s the same list that I keep in Oregon because
I want to be able to defend that to say no, we don’t protect
everybody, we don’t sweep anything under the rug, we do
proper investigations and we hold officers accountable. In
fact, their peers expect you to hold them accountable
because when an officer does something wrong, he makes
everyone else look bad. But when you have an officer
involved shooting, you absolutely have to be transparent.
Perryman: My final question
is why do you want to do this? What is your motivation?
Navarre: I have passion,
I care about people, I care about community, I enjoy
challenges. And, I think I’m the most qualified. Maybe I’m
wrong. Maybe there’s somebody out there with more
qualifications, maybe there’s somebody out there that’ll do
a much better job, but I think I can go in there and I can
do what needs to be done for Lucas County. I was asked to
run by members of Lucas County, people in elected and
appointed positions. I didn’t say yes right away, I think
that’s well-known. But, I thought about it for a while and
was led to believe that the Democratic Party was going to
endorse a candidate, and when they didn’t, I looked at the
field and I thought I was the most qualified, so I got in.
That’s about as honest as I can be.
Perryman: Thank you.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |
