This is a statement Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher released to the community Tuesday:

       The very foundation of a police agency's authority to enforce the law originates in a public trust endowed upon the officers by citizens of the community in which they serve. The power and authority to enforce the law carries with it an awesome responsibility for officers to remain accountable to that public. The public trust is formed when the community entrusts the police department to provide service, protection, law and order. This public trust obliges police officers to act with good intentions and the resolve to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner.

        The public trust is influenced each time we determine that an employee's conduct did not conform to law, policy, procedure or rule. Whenever the Police Department sustains an allegation of misconduct, the corrective or disciplinary action imposed serves three purposes:

        • To modify the employee's conduct.

        • To set expectations for other employees.

        • To assure citizens that the Police Department strives to maintain the public trust by holding employees accountable for their conduct.

        No one, including a police officer, is expected to be infallible. The vast majority of employees abide by law, policy, procedure and rule. Most employees will follow the rules when given a clear set of expectations. The nature of police work is the application of discretionary judgments, based on community benefit, accumulated expertise, and the values that guide the police profession, to solve a variety of problems. Police work, therefore, is not conducive to the formation of a comprehensive list of permissible and prohibited acts.

        However, each and every member of the Cincinnati Police Department is required to conform to a high standard of personal conduct in the performance of their duties. Accordingly, members of the department are required to be honest in all matters and to fully discharge the obligation of their office.

        Honesty becomes critically important whenever a police officer decides to intervene in another person's life. This is especially true if that police action results in the death of a human being. All members of society have the right to expect full accountability for this action from the employing police department and the individual police officer.

        It is my expectation that all members of the Police Department can be depended upon to provide full accounting for their actions during critical incidents. The integrity of our agency is dependent upon the honesty of our members and an unwavering commitment to the organization's mission and values. Clearly, we value integrity as the basis for community trust and that integrity must never be compromised by the actions of any of our employees.

        Dishonesty tears at the very fabric of our society, erodes the public confidence in our Police Department, and casts a shadow of suspicion upon our individual police officers. Dishonesty cannot and will not be tolerated in our organization. Any such conduct on the part of a member of the Cincinnati Police Department can, and should, be expected to result in my recommendation for dismissal from employment.

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