AMES, Iowa — Minneapolis is long, straight drive from Ames, but that doesn't mean the death of George Floyd isn't impacting the Iowa college town.
While the entire country is calling for charges against the four officers involved with Floyd's death, Ames police Chief Charles Cychosz is emphasizing how his department is making sure officers are following department policies.
Cychosz wrote a letter regarding the tragic death of Floyd and shared it both on the station's Facebook and Twitter pages.
The following is the entire letter:
Regarding the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
The death of Mr. George Floyd is shocking, disturbing, and of great concern to all of us. We applaud Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo for swiftly responding to this tragic event.
The officers’ actions (and inactions) were in direct conflict with what we believe. Specifically, Ames Police officers are trained to avoid actions that might jeopardize someone’s ability to breathe. What we saw on the video was in direct violation of our policy and training. We are trained to treat all individuals, whether they are the complainant, suspect, or defendant with dignity and respect. We also expect officers to intervene if one of their colleagues engages in unnecessary force or misconduct. Our officers wear body cameras that create a video record of their actions. We have a supervisor on every shift to ensure that there is oversight and supervision. Our officers receive training in de-escalation and every use of force is reviewed for policy compliance and appropriateness.
On a deeper level, it is important for you to know that we think about these things in our hiring process. We screen for bias, emotional maturity, and a service ethic during our interviews, background investigations, and psychological testing. Policing is a difficult job and we need our officers to be emotionally stable, compassionate, and humane.
Ames is a diverse and ever-changing community and we hire officers that embrace those qualities. Racial bias has no place in our business. We train regularly to understand cultural differences, potential sources of bias, and strategies for building respectful relationships. This is always a work in progress as we strive to be fair and equitable in what we do. To that end, the NAACP assists us in the hiring process and promotional testing and we have multicultural mentors that work with our Safe Neighborhoods Team on building better relationships.
I am shocked and saddened by what we have seen. It is a sobering reminder of the impact of bad police behavior. Our officers, like others across the country are feeling the burden of this incident. Our officers see this as a betrayal of their commitment to fairness and the trust we work hard to earn. We will continue to put our energy into building relationships in the community while ensuring that our policies, practices, and oversight are worthy of the community’s trust.
We extend our deepest condolences to the Floyd family and join them in the sorrow of this unnecessary loss.
Charles Cychosz
Chief of Police
Ames Police Department
