A Salem police car. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
As the city closes in on hiring a new police chief that will guide Salem after longtime Police Chief Jerry Moore retires, community responses shed light on some of the city’s priorities.
This summer, the city conducted a survey to determine the priorities residents wanted in a new chief and the department as a whole.
The top three qualities listed for a new chief of police were someone who’s committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, who has integrity and can be held accountable to the community.
Nearly 2,500 people responded to the survey between May 28 and June 21, as racial justice protests were occurring across the country. Most wanted an increased value placed on community relationships and de-escalation techniques used by officers.
DOCUMENT LINK: Chief of police community input survey
The three department priorities identified in the survey were fair and just policing, strong community relationships and crime prevention.
Many respondents favored reducing police funding and redistributing money to other social service programs.
There was also concern among participants that officers were aligning themselves with white supremacist groups, a concern some Salem residents voiced over the summer after videos of officers interacting cordially with armed militia groups were widely shared on social media.
Moore, who has led the department for last 15 years, weighed in on the interaction in June, saying officers were trying to de-escalate tensions between the militia group and protesters during the June protests.
Those concerns were renewed last week when community members wanted Salem police to intervene as Proud Boys roamed Bush’s Pasture Park armed and drinking.
About half of respondents said their interactions with the Salem police department were good or excellent, while about one in five said it was “only fair” or poor. The rest said they had no experience with Salem police.
The bulk of those who responded, 42%, were between the ages of 18 and 35. Most were white, 8% were Hispanic or Latino, 2% were Black, 2% were Asian and 2% were Pacific Islander.
Salem announced the finalists for the police chief job on Oct. 16.
The candidates will be in Salem for a virtual question and answer forum on Oct. 30. Residents can ask questions through an online form ahead of the event but must submit questions by Oct. 29. The community can tune in on YouTube.
Both of the candidates for the job have experience in cities larger than Salem, joined their respective departments in 1992 and have served in leadership roles.
The candidates:
Malik Aziz has been a major at the Dallas Police Department since Dec. 2017. Before that he served as deputy chief of police at the department from 2008 to 2017, during which time he managed more than 500 officers and civilian employees and 50 supervisory officers.
He supervises night command division serving the northwest and north central area of Dallas that receives 400,000 calls for service each year. By comparison, Salem had 118,344 calls for service last year.
In his cover letter, Malik Aziz said his family goes back four generations in Dallas.
He said he has a “keen understanding of progressive cities and what is required to make the city successful.”
Aziz said he has a strong record of reducing crime. On his resume, he lists his role as commander of a 2010 summer crime initiative called “operation triangle” which sought to reduce public disorder, violent crime and property crime. The initiative involved an undercover prostitution sting.
He served as chair of the National Black Police Association from 2010 to 2016. During that time, he presented to the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. During a panel, he said the Black Police Association urges departments to meet the demographics of their community by having a plan to recruit and retain officers of color.
“It is not enough to mandate diversity, but it becomes necessary to diversify command ranks in departments that have historically failed to develop and/or promote qualified and credentialed officers to executive and command ranks,” he told the task force in 2015.
The Salem Police Department is overwhelmingly white and male. There are 173 white officers, 15 Hispanic officers, one Black officer and one American Indian officer. Of the 189 sworn officers, 18 are women, according to a presentation by Moore to the Salem City Council during a September work session.
On his resume, Aziz said he hasn’t used sick time in 20 years. In 2017, Malik was named a finalist for the job of Dallas police chief, but didn’t get the job.
“The city of Salem, Oregon seeks a qualified and credentialed community and police leader to guide the police department into a better future during these very tough times. I am the 21st century police chief leader the city is searching for,” Aziz wrote.
The other candidate, Trevor Womack, has been the deputy chief of police of the Stockton Police Department since 2012. During his tenure he was involved in a city program which aims to divert low-level offenders who are often homeless away from the criminal justice system and into treatment. Marion County began a similar program in 2018.
In his cover letter, Womack said his policing philosophy rests on two pillars: smarter policing and principled policing.
He said smarter policing is using “data-driven, evidence-based strategies coupled with robust modern technologies.” Womack didn’t provide an example of what types of strategies he was advocating for. In his letter, he said principled policing is “the why and how we do it.”
Womack said he’s handled protests during city council meetings and in the streets. He said the legitimacy of the department must never be sacrificed in the name of crime reduction.
“Our profession is at a crossroads. Maintaining public trust and police legitimacy must be a top priority for the Salem Police Department,” he wrote.
Womack cited his involvement in the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, which was an effort to “promote changes in law enforcement culture, policies, and practices to enhance respectful policing and improve police-community relationships” in six cities.
There were more than 20 listening sessions in Stockton from 2016 to 2018 which focused on community organizations, group violence intervention, LGBTQIA+, neighborhood, racial/ethnic communities and youth.
That led to policy changes within the department that included mandating that officers make every attempt to mediate and defuse situations with people experiencing mental health crises, kept officers from stopping or arresting people solely on the basis that they may be deportable, mandating that officers receive annual mental health training and added language on procedural justice, which asks officers to have respect, trustworthiness and give people a voice.
Womack’s resume also lists experience with gang violence intervention.
Last year, Womack was a candidate for Fresno, California police chief, but didn’t get the job.
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