STATEMENT

Walter E. Bader
President

March 31, 2006
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Members of FOP Lodge 35 are among the most professional, well-conducted, honorable law enforcement officers in the nation. Our members risk life and limb in service to this community with fairness and without discrimination. Actions speak louder than words and the proof of our character is in our record of service. Our record of service to the community speaks far louder than the words of a few who have access to our message board.
 
FOP 35 and its members denounce racism, sexism, or bigotry of any kind. The existence of our organization itself stands for just the opposite. Our organization is nothing if it is not built on community, mutual respect, and mutual support.
We have been disturbed by some of the postings on our message board. I am sorry that some people posted those comments on our message board. I am also sorry that we did not act sooner.

Just as it is wrong to stereotype any segment of our community, it is equally wrong to stereotype or broad-brush police officers.  We need to condemn all bigotry. 

If our message forum is to continue, our Board of Directors has approved new guidelines for message-posting and a new system to help prevent and limit offensive postings. We will next go to our members to seek their approval of the policy and their authorization to enforce it.
 
Let me make one point clearly: as much as we denounce bigotry of any kind, and as much as bigotry has no place on our message board, we remain committed to providing our members an opportunity to voice their opinions and exchange ideas, even if our members decide to take down the message board.

Exploiting that opportunity to make inappropriate comments, however, is something we will not tolerate. However, exploiting a few outrageously inappropriate comments to silence responsible criticism and debate would be wrong too.
Regarding the policy we will present to our members for approval, if we decide to continue the message board, I highlight three key elements: (1) we will expressly ban bigoted and inappropriate comments; (2) we will monitor for those comments; and (3) we will better restrict who posts on the message boards. In particular, we will ask our members to approve the following:

Going forward, we hope to assign to every member a unique identification and password that, while maintaining anonymity, will allow us to block future postings from members who post messages that violate our policy.
While these policies would be an important first step in monitoring the message board's content, we recognize that such monitoring will be a process for improvement. [It will evolve.] Nothing is a panacea, and we can't control the messages that people post. We will certainly do our best.

Let me also note that putting these recommended policies in place might, in the end, be beyond the ability of our organization. For that reason, among others, members might decide not to continue the message board.

As we all think about these issues, we must appreciate the valuable role that this message board serves. Right now, the internet is filled with chat and message boards serving every kind of community precisely because they allow people within a certain community to exchange ideas and express opinions with each other that, hopefully, enriches that community. [Many are struggling with the same issues we are attempting to address.]

All we intend with FOP 35's message board is to create a forum in which police officers can exchange opinions and information with those who are experiencing, and are interested in, the same things as them.

This forum is about 5 years old and was created after FOP 35 recognized that members had created their own, informal forum on AOL. Since that was restricted to AOL members, FOP 35 decided we should create our own forum that would be open and available to all FOP 35 members.

As with many Internet message boards, FOP 35 has deemed it important to maintain its posters' anonymity. All of us can understand that anonymity provides a freedom to express views fully and honestly, particularly when those views sometimes involve criticisms of current leadership.

That freedom, of course, has its limits within our organization – limits that our policies will impose and enforce.
In September 2004, I appointed an ad hoc committee to study the issue of postings that were non-fraternal, examine ways to monitor the message board, and recommend ways to ensure the message board is a comfortable and appropriate environment for our members.
At the time, the issue was that people were occasionally posting critical comments about officers.
In June 2005, a committee identified three options and recommended we put them in a referendum before all the members. The options were to shut the message board down, leave it as it was, or require personal identification of each poster. [Referendum is not available to us under our parliamentarian form government and no motion was made to adopt any of the options presented. The matter was referred back to the Committee, and the Committee representative who gave the Committee report and presented the recommendations agreed to study further the third recommendation.] We simply moved too slowly on that recommendation.

Let me be clear, however, about one fact: I did not know about the comments that have caused all of us concern until recent news reports. Had I known at the time those messages were posted, I would have had them taken down. A complaint about statements was received and investigated by a Vice President in 2004. One of the reported statements was included in that investigation but not found on the Board at the time as it had apparently been deleted by then. In addition, the ad hoc Committee presented a report in June 2005.

I want to reaffirm that we are an organization built of police officers who proudly serve Montgomery County every day, helping deliver justice in a fair and unbiased manner. We simply ask that those whom we serve don't allow the comments of a small fraction, who may or may not be members, to taint the honorable service of the many.