My name is Sean Reynolds and I'm honored
to serve as your chief of police.
I arrived in the city of Temple on June 1st,
2020. On June 5th, 2020,
I authored an open letter to the
community on the heels of the tragedy
involving Michael Dean that had occurred.
We're both families and citizens,
raised legitimate questions about
the intentionality and strategy
of their Police Department.
The Police Department and the city of
Temple faced criticism and scrutiny.
Hearts were hurting around the community
and within your Police Department.
Amid this pain, we began working.
We began working on a variety of initiatives.
Let me begin by discussing
our mission statement.
We desired a statement that could and
would define our intentionality and our
strategy each day we come to serve.
Our mission statement is.
Serving,
protecting and working in partnership
with our community to prevent,
reduce and solve crime with integrity,
honor and dedication.
This mission statement does
not mean we will be perfect.
And we are not perfect.
We are humans and we will make mistakes.
However, it should serve as a
starting point for each day
shift to discussion and meeting.
The mission statement should
remind us of what we are to do and
the best part of our profession,
which is serving and protecting.
I would remind us that policing a free
constitutional Republic is not easy work.
We live in a challenging fallen world.
Things change quickly and our
desire at TPD is to be on the
front edge of modern policing.
But in the middle of that
statement is our community,
the most important part of the statement.
The police cannot and will not be successful
without the community and vice versa.
We need the Community to partner
with us to improve professional
policing and to improve our community.
We are all guardians of our community.
Our world is complicated and beautiful,
but also a world that can be
unbelievably cruel and hard.
In my estimation,
we rarely take time to focus on
the beautiful side of our world,
and it's easy to become focused on
cruel and hard versus the beauty,
talent and potential.
Law enforcement and its officers
face criticism in our society,
and some of it is very well earned.
But some of it is not.
However,
I remain convinced that we as a
Community can continue to work
together to do better and be better.
For many of us, it feels as if we are more
divided than we have ever been in this
country that we love. If you disagree,
and I suspect some of you will,
spend some time on social media and let
me know if you see much common decency,
respect or idealism.
It seems to me that we need to focus less
on the differences, more on our commonality.
Listen twice as much as we speak and listen
to understand versus listening to respond.
Well, I had a plan in mind
when I arrived in Temple.
It was quickly derailed by COVID-19, which
impacted all of us in a variety of ways.
The lack of contact, lack of resources,
lack of information.
We hunkered down, isolated,
closed almost everything and
distanced ourselves from one another.
We reduced and or eliminated contact
between the Community and the police.
We lost loved ones,
perhaps got sick ourselves and
our perhaps battling illness.
Currently,
the sense of loneliness and
isolation was heartbreaking and it
is doubtful if we will ever truly
know the true ramifications of our
choices we made during the pandemic.
However, during all of this,
the department began to work on
relationships, trust and communication.
Rebuilding of those relationships
that were damaged.
Rebuilding trust where it was lost or
could be improved and attempting to
communicate the changes we were making.
If you missed some of the changes
we've been working on or I did
not communicate them well,
let me offer as concisely as I can.
I realize that words are
often cheap these days,
so I wanna share with you our efforts.
This list is not all inclusive of projects,
programming or improvement.
When I arrived in Temple,
I found a good Police Department staffed
by dedicated professional officers.
However, we can always strive to be better.
In 2020, we partnered with Central County
Services and have a qualified mental health
professional embedded within the Patrol
division of Temple Police Department.
We've conducted ethics training,
supervisory training,
report writing, training.
We've increased training
across the department.
We joined the national use of force
database and began having discussions on
how to reduce use of force interactions.
In fact, in 2022,
we reduced total use of force
events by 18% as compared to 21.
We focused on deescalation mental health
training and became an International
Association of Chiefs of Police certified
agency in the One Mind campaign.
We retooled our hiring practices
and emphasized hiring for character.
I remind our personnel all the time
that we will work shorthanded before
we hire a person who doesn't share our
values of accountability and integrity.
We emphasized the mental health of our
officers and safety by implementing
a minimum staffing requirement.
The city of Temple provided funding
for both physical and behavioral
assessments of new employees,
but when a step further and funded that
for our incumbent employees as well.
We also in partnership with the
Temple Police Association.
Revamped our promotional process
with additional testing,
evaluation and psychological exams.
We have reconstituted our peer
support and critical stress management
program with the assistance of Pastor
Robert Beeman Elliott Germany,
doctor Sonja Annette Crossley
and chaplain Angela Mcgehee.
We implemented a police chaplaincy
program designed to build and strengthen
our relationships and services available
for community members and police officers.
We have increased our community engagement
and Community connection points.
Through coffee with a cop,
burgers with a badge,
kiddo card events,
and partnering with Renata Square
Apartments for a small touchdown
substation inside of those apartments.
We have added new technology and equipment.
We redoubled our efforts to
protect the public with increased
active shooter training.
We have added new positions,
increased our staffing and begun the
process of regaining the confidence
of those who may doubt our purpose.
We brought the Citizens Police
Advisory Commission together and
online a group of citizens whose
mission statement is as follows.
To serve the temple community by
strengthening the relationship between
the citizens and the Police Department
with a goal of promoting collaboration
and improving the quality of life
in a place we love to call home.
This group of volunteer citizens who serve
on the Citizens Police Advisory Commission.
Have reviewed,
discussed and dialogued on the following
topics the 21st century policing report,
pillar one, building trust and legitimacy.
Pillar two, policy and oversight.
Pillar 3 Technology and social media.
Pillar four community
policing and crime reduction.
Pillar 5 training and education.
Pillar six officer safety and Wellness.
We've covered the budget,
monthly executive summaries, the temple
Police Department's complaint process,
the Code of criminal procedures.
Their goals, roles and work plan.
Juvenile crime rate.
Discussions on homelessness
and mental health issues.
Project centurion.
Juvenile curfew ordinance discussion of our
budget for 23 bias based policing report,
use of Force Report Officer
Wellness and safety discussion.
Five members of the Citizens
Police Academy or Citizens Police
Advisory Commission also attended
the Citizens Police Academy.
As I stated in my 2020 letter,
I'm committed to fostering relationships
between TPD and the community through
healthy and productive conversations
concerning police and community issues.
We are committed to treating each of
our citizens equally as we drive hate,
discrimination and divisiveness
out of our city.
Sadly and Reprehensibly,
another tragedy has occurred,
this time in Memphis, TN,
with the death of Tyree Nichols.
We're heartsick again.
I am heartsick again.
In the days and months ahead,
we will face challenges.
It is my hope that we face them together.
It is our desire as a community
to move forward together and
identify areas of improvement.
Members of the Temple Police Department
look forward to working together
with community members to learn,
listen, discuss and stand as one.
We have done this work and more during
a significant employee shortage.
Temple Police Department is
currently seeking men and women of
good character with a strong moral
compass and a desire to serve.
We have 18 current vacancies.
And our next hiring process is
scheduled for February 25th, 2023.
For more information or to apply
for a police officer position,
go to jointemplepd.com and
accept the challenge.
The temple Police Department fully
supports the 1st Amendment rights of
the people to peacefully assemble.
The placing fellow residents in danger
and destroying property overshadows
the message of social progress.
My thoughts and prayers are with the
community members and the Dean family.
It is my greatest hope that peace
can be found for each of us,
but particularly for the
family of Michael Dean.