GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Just a few hours after officially taking office on Thursday, the new leader of the Green Bay Police Department took the hot seat.
Chief Chris Davis sat down with members of the media after being sworn in this week to discuss a range of topics from gun violence to protests and even employee health.
Davis says Green Bay was an attractive place to land for a variety of reasons.
“There is a tremendous amount of community support for police and for public safety. That’s one of the things that I was really looking for, because to be frank, that does not exist everywhere,” Davis said. “Support and evolution in the policing world are not mutually exclusive things. It’s a really productive and healthy conversation about policing and public safety here…in our profession, this is a critical time because of all of the calls for change that we hear. If we’re being honest with ourselves, we can see the need for some changes to the way we provide public safety service in our communities.”
Davis also explained how this is the area his family would’ve likely moved into anyway, even if he had stayed in Portland and retired there. His wife is from Kaukauna.
Coming in from outside of the agency was also a point of discussion. Davis says being an outsider definitely has ups and downs.
“Not having a lot of preconceptions about what’s here, so I can come here with my eyes wide open and maybe see things from a perspective the people who’ve been living in it for a long time haven’t seen,” Davis said. “On the downside though, there’s a lot that I don’t know. I have a lot to learn. A huge mistake that I have seen people make when they come to jobs like this from outside is to almost assume that they know more than they do.”
But he hopes the challenges faced, particularly over the past few years of his career, can translate.
“I was certainly challenged more in the last couple years working in Portland than it any other time in my career, but I think it has given me some experience and some perspective that can add value here in Green Bay,” Davis said.
Even applying that value, however, may take some time. The chief still has to learn the ropes of how the Green Bay Police Department, and community as a whole, really operates.
“[The most] important thing that I can do is earn that trust inside the organization, because these folks don’t know me. Trust doesn’t just show up because they make you the chief of police. Nobody’s gonna follow you anywhere if – number one, they don’t trust you, and number 2, you don’t look like you know where you’re going,” Davis said. “That means spending time with people, that means jumping in the front seat of a patrol car and spending some time with a police officer in their native habitat to see things from their perspective. It’s critically important for me to understand the culture as it exists here right now.”
As for specific issues, Davis hopes to quickly get up to speed on what’s going on – and how the department can impact the community in a positive way.
One of the major issues seen in the area recently is gun violence.
“For the most part it is the same relatively small group of people that’s involved in an inordinate amount of gun violence in any city where it happens, whether that’s Chicago or New York,” Davis said. “It’s a very large and it’s a very complex problem, and it is bigger than just the police department, even though we have a really important role to play.”
Davis says officers need to be able to go out and conduct preventative work to get guns off the streets and interrupt the cycle of violence. But he says it’s also vital to have a community influence in stopping the violence before it starts.
Another aspect of the job that people may not often think about is officer and employee health. Law enforcement tends to involve long hours, high stress, and some intense situations – among other issues.
“Policing is never been an easy job and it is certainly not gotten easier over the last couple years and you see that in the folks that go out and do it,” Davis said. “As a profession, historically, we have not done a good job of managing all of those issues among ourselves. So I think across the board, we need to change that we need to invest and employee wellness.”
However, Davis reminded everyone that it is just his first day on the job – so he doesn’t have any suggestions for specific changes within the department quite yet.
A hot topic for the new chief comes as he arrives from Portland, Oregon. The city has been a hotbed of massive protests, as well as notable violence and riots over the past few years. He took questions about those situations head-on.
“Just this morning, I took an oath to uphold people’s constitutional right to go out and protest in their community. So I have every intention of supporting people going out and exercising their legitimate first amendment rights,” Davis said. “The first amendment doesn’t give any of us the right to go out and break people’s windows or subject police officers to abuse or some of the things that we’ve seen a little bit here in Green Bay, and certainly a lot in other places.”
He also says to not conflate protests and riots, because there is a difference.
“It certainly doesn’t surprise me that my predecessor would go out and and walk with a protest march. I don’t think that’s a problem, because what I see there is a police chief supporting his community’s right to protest,” Davis said. “[But when you] add criminal activity – when you are damaging other people’s property or injuring people, that’s not a protest. That’s something else.”
Some might question why the city would choose to hire a chief from so far away. Davis understands why that could be a concern.
But he thinks he can find a way to fit in.
The final, and perhaps most pressing question for some Wisconsinites, relates to how well he’ll fit in. Does Davis prefer whiskey or brandy in his old-fashioned?
“Now here I am, on the record in Green Bay, having to admit that I’ve only once had an old fashioned that my neighbor made for me a couple years ago. so I don’t I don’t know,” Davis laughed.
