Closing in on his first year as Columbus Police Chief, Oscar Lewis has often made reference to his Christian faith, beginning during his interview for the job last January.
Public officials, like regular citizens, have every right to embrace religion and often we find their actions are informed and influenced positively by the tenets of their faith.
But there are times when invoking a religious viewpoint does more harm than good.
For Lewis, Wednesday was such a day.
Lewis held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to address a variety of police-related issues, announcing the hiring of two new police officers, commenting on the progress of the city’s new reward program to help solve serious unsolved crimes and reflecting on his first year as chief.
If the press conference was intended to ease the public’s growing concerns about violent crime in the city, Lewis fell well short of that goal in his response to a question on that topic.
“The End Times are here and things are going to get pretty bad,” Lewis answered. “We’re doing everything we can to try to combat these things. There are things we can control and things we can’t control…I just think there are some things have gone by the wayside as far as people and their faith in God and everything.”
That response is regrettable, not because it was an expression of Lewis’ sincerely-held religious beliefs, but because it suggests a sort of fatalism that undermines the public’s confidence in law enforcement’s ability to make our community safe.
In essence Lewis, seems to be saying, the crime that afflicts our city is inevitable, that these are forces beyond human control.
It is a wholly unacceptable answer to the question. It obscures, rather than enlightens, the practical reality of crime in our city.
Columbus residents have every right to be concerned about the increase in serious crimes in their neighborhoods. More importantly, they have every right to know what our police department intends to do about it. They want assurance that our police department understands this issue and has developed plans to turn the tide.
When the response to serious crime is essentially an act of police throwing up their hands and saying, “What are you gonna do?” public confidence is eroded.
Personal beliefs do not always make for good public policy.
Lewis’ response is a perfect illustration of that error.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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