In January 2014, Police Chief Don Pedersen received a job offer related to helping the Forces of Good overcome the rapidly expanding Sheriff’s Dept. scandal, especially in downtown Los Angeles.
Mr. Pedersen did not say yes until 90 days later.
On a Monday in mid-April, a 35-year veteran, Scott Bixby, who does not own any self-promoting trumpets, slipped into the chief chair.
He was welcomed with less fanfare than an aging fly winging into a room.
No one in Culver City on that wash day could have known that the hometown boy was exactly the right disciplined man for this time.
No one in Culver City could have known that the introspective Mr. Bixby – the fewer words the better – would be the ideal hometown antidote for the spate of police clashes with civilians and the War on Cops that would erupt throughout the following two years.
From Portland to Portland, cops have been forced to play defense against the strident, sometimes crude, sometimes fantasized voices of victims and their millions of supporters, all of whom became instant darlings of the media.
While some police departments came under suspicion, Culver City’s hands were clean, the still new chief said.
Only one weapon, though, figured to be effective in pushing back from the law enforcement side.
Mr. Bixby knew precisely how to counter the blizzard of anti-cop ugliness that has exploded nonstop almost daily for 23 months, since Ferguson.
Badly outflanked in the noise category, Mr. Bixby fought back in the shrewdest way he could think of.
His Community Letter (“ ‘Nobody Does It Better,’ Says Chief Bixby”), which ran here two days ago, was brilliantly conceived.
He did not emotionally say his department falls into the Traditional Good Cop category because, well, you know, cops play cleanly.
He produced sample after sample about scores of Police Dept. real-time organized community affiliations and innovative programs.
At the last City Council meeting, several persons ,catching the national fever to look closer at cops, called for establishment of a citizen oversight board. They did not offer evidence of a need. They were reacting to a national mood.
Mr. Bixby’s 2,500-word Community Letter should have settled concerns of critics, but doubtless will not.
