A Man of Few Syllables
Not to the surprise of his family and friends, when the city formally commended him a few weeks later before a City Council meeting, Officer Kellum delivered the shortest speech since the Gettysburg Address 144 years ago.
His 15 minutes of fame shrank to less than 15 seconds.
Thank you. What I did was not unusual. Police officers do this every day. Every officer in the department would have done exactly the same thing.
Aubrey Kellum is not one of those manufactured modest and humble 24-year veterans of the Police Dept. That type can ramble for hours about his reputation for modesty and humility.
Authenticity
On the night of his City Hall commendation, it was evident he was the genuine article.
For City Councilman Steve Rose, the moment of recognition was too pristine to be shared. What Aubrey did was almost diminished by immediately following up with making still another presentation to still another person, the Councilman said.
In his early 40s, married and the father of young children this is as personal as Officer Kellum gets.
Insurance for the Future
From boyhood to manhood (pretty much as an only child), his path was paved by relatives, church and scouting leaders, each of whom imparted a generous helping of rock-ribbed moral values that all children from good homes are presumed to inculcate.
In dialogue with a visitor, Officer Kellum is as verbally spare in an upper floor interview room at the Police Station as he is when alone, miles from another human being.
You may safely presume he speaks both softly and haltingly. He is more about restrained rivulets of rhetoric than rhetorical rivers.
Why Law Enforcement?
Growing up to become a policeman, he says, was a childhood thing, a childhood dream once I knew a little bit about police work. Ive never had a hard and fast answer beyond that. Just something I always wanted to do.
The longer I have done it, the more I have fallen in love with it. As a child (growing up in a southwest Wilshire neighborhood), I did a lot of volunteer work. Being a police officer is just a natural extension of that.
They Were the Shapers
Between the Explorers and Boy Scouts, you get into volunteering, providing a service.
My immediate family is not large. My extended family is considerably larger. My mom has 9 siblings. They are all from the Midwest. They have very conservative values. My religious upbringing deserves credit, too, and the police Explorer program I was involved in for quite some time. The gentleman in charge of it (for the LAPD), Ed Lovatt, a police officer, taught me quite a bit about doing the right thing.
Benefits of Being an Explorer
Outside of my family, he was a strong influence in keeping me directed, keeping me going the right way. I really believe some of the people, some of the influences you come across early in life, can mold you and direct you down the particular path you decide to take.
Officer Kellum said a combination of his mother, his church, LAPD Officer Lovatt and his police work have made him what he is today.
Friends say that Officer Kellum does have his moments when he happily, almost prankishly, departs from character. But they also say he could place a hundred words in a basket at breakfast and not use them all up in the course of a day.
Talking Out of Turn
Surely his teachers never had to scold young Aubrey for talking out of turn in class.
A true leader, he said, does not have to announce he is a leader. Of all of my strongest influences, mentors, none of them ever had to exaggerate a story. They just told the story.
When you look at police officers, or military or professional leaders, they are picked as leaders because they have a way of calming situations. My job is to bring calm to a scene, a situation where there is generally a lot of chaos.
Fighting for Primacy
Yes, Officer Kellum admitted, excitement flares within him when he walks into a volatile setting. But he always manages to keep it safely tucked away.
A sense of professionalism takes over, he says.
Its a Living
I am uncomfortable talking about this because what I do is just part of the job. Thats all.
I dont do it for pay. I do it because I think I am making a difference. If you believe you are making a difference, you dont have to puff it up. We have a lot of heroes in law enforcement, but people dont hear about them. You dont hear about predators being taken off the street.
The situation that is bringing me attention is important. But there are a lot of other guys here who have done a lot of things that will never, ever get any recognition.
People dont know how good they have it, especially in Culver City.
Rising Tide of Cynicism
As with many of his law enforcement colleagues, Officer Kellum needs to work at fending off cynicism in his daily work.
How does he work his way through this job hazard? I still believe most people in the world are good, he says. The majority of people we come into contact with day-to-day are hardworking people, just trying to make it.
Some have fallen on hard times. Some are recovering from hard times. Sometimes we misinterpret the kind of people we come across. In a professional organization, you can explain that away, if you are honest, up front with people. You say something like, This is why I stopped you. Then you both can walk away feeling okay about the contact.
Not Always Blue Skies, Green Lights
Sometimes we have a disposition that is hard for people to forgive. I understand that, probably because I was raised in the 1970s in the southwest Wilshire area, where police were a little more aggressive, and he chuckled, fleetingly, with cynical irony at the flashback.
I can remember a police department that was very, very
There was no trust in lower middle class areas where people were just trying to get by.
There Was a Reason
Why, Officer Kellum was asked, didnt that turn him away from police work?
I dont know. I dont know.
He paused, and then he landed on the bullseye.
Probably, he said, because I never was contacted negatively (by police). I just saw it with others.
My contact with the Explorers made me see the other side of it. There are two sides to everything.
An incisive insight, which seemed like a prudent place to leave it.
Officer Aubrey Kellum, a good boy who grew up to be quite a good man, just as his mother dreamed when he was young and she was younger than she is today.
