REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — It started on Facebook. A post made by Ricardo Thompson.
“I can recognize when the bully is being the bully,” Thompson said. “They’ve been the bully for a long time.”
Thompson, a former Reynoldsburg Police Officer, citing “intolerable working conditions” within the department announced his resignation.
“Law enforcement pretty much picked me,” he said.
He says police work was his life’s calling, but says RPD leadership made things increasingly difficult.
“Is this a management problem,” 10TV’s Bryant Somerville asked Thompson. “Is this a leadership problem? Is this a racism problem?”
“It’s all of the above,” Thompson said.
“When you hear those kinds of allegations in your department…your thoughts,” 10TV’s Bryant Somerville asked Reynoldsburg Police Chief Curtis Baker in an exclusive one-on-one interview.
“Well, it’s disappointing,” Baker said. “You never want to hear allegations like that.”
Baker says he encourages workers to follow processes in place to report incidents and that his department is a modern, progressive law enforcement agency with very high standards.
“Do we have a culture problem at RPD,” Somerville asked Baker.
“So, I don’t believe so,” Baker said.
Thompson’s personnel file shows there were some marks from failing an appropriate investigation after a hit/skip, not making an arrest during a domestic violence call, not wearing the proper uniform belt and for insubordination and conduct while on sick leave.
He called off sick in late August and Chief Baker, saying Thompson had already had several previous marks off, went to check on him at Thompson’s home. Thompson was at a gym, soaking his aching back in a hot tub and then stopped to get a haircut on the way home.
“Petty thing after petty thing and a lot of it has nothing to do with the job,” Thompson said.
Thompson says it’s an overreach. The department says an officer had to get overtime to cover Thompson’s shift. Thompson was suspended eight hours for the incident.
According to Mayor Joe Begeny’s office, 24 officers have left RPD since 2019. Some have moved for other jobs, others retired and 12 resigned. The department is currently at 68 officers while it is budgeted for 70. Chief Baker says the shortages are not putting a strain on responding to calls and that retirements and resignations, since COVID, are on ongoing issue for departments across the country.
“It’s life within the PD that’s killing them,” former Officer Brian Marvin said. “It’s what’s dragging them down.”
Marvin says officers are being forced into retirement and resignation. He, himself, resigned in June after 25 years of service.
“I am not one who doesn’t play ball,” he said. “I just need to be respected and be given dignity while I’m at work.”
He says when a new administration came in 2018, things became increasingly uncomfortable. He fielded concerns from officers from dissatisfaction, a lack of respect and being under appreciated.
“I did the steps you’re supposed to do,” Marvin said. “I went to HR. I went to the mayor. I went everywhere you were supposed to go.”
Still, he says nothing was done.
“It’s just a feeling of lack of worth and not being taken care of and no one really cares whether you’re there or not,” he said.
Marvin put in his notice for retirement. After his exit interview he claims he was pushed out of meetings and wasn’t allowed to have access to new software. He was forced to resign after he says information during his exit interview was spread, out of context, to other officers.
“But is it not OK for the chief…to people who have subordinates to let them know this is how people are feeling,” Somerville asked Marvin. “Is that not OK?”
“It’s fine in the way you should do it,” Marvin said. “In the way it was conveyed back to me [the comments] were [expletive] versions of the things that I had said.”
It lead to a profanity-laced confrontation, as documented in Marvin’s personnel file, detailing his conversation with a superior while yelling expletives about Chief Baker.
“People may watch this and say well you read that document you’re clearly a disgruntled former employee,” Somerville said to Marvin. “Are you?”
“No,” Marvin answered.
Baker says while no one is being pushed out, accountability and a strong emphasis on officer policy, while popular by community optics, not so much the case for his department as a whole.
“We have followed through with that [protocol],” Baker said. “That does not work for everybody. There are some people that can’t follow policies. What I’m proud to say is most officers can.”
Mayor Begeny took office in January of 2020.
“Are you aware of any hostile working environment allegations within RPD,” Somerville asked Begeny.
“Now I am, yes,” Begeny said. “If there are things that are going on that I need to know about you have to bring it to my attention because if I don’t know about it, there’s nothing I can do.”
Last month Begeny’s office put out findings from a department-wide survey conducted by an outside organization, Pradco. Among results, officers report not feeling comfortable speaking candidly, some fearing retaliation, some calling out a lack of professionalism and respect and others saying concerns are not heard by leadership.
While Begeny and RPD work through next steps to right those concerns, Begeny wants officers to know retaliation will not be accepted.
“We want to make sure that they understand that that’s not going to happen,” Begeny said. “I’m not going to tolerate it. The Chief doesn’t feel that that is happening, but if the perception is there, those are things that we need to address.
The perception is there.
Six current RPD officers, wanting to remain anonymous, sent letters through text messages to 10TV highlighting, the “arrogant and shortsighted” leadership “from the chief and deputy chief [Rhonda Grizzell]” and how their actions “have killed morale.”
Another officer says leadership is run by a “dictator,” while another says Chief Baker is “simply a poor leader.” Another officer says within the department “there’s no trust.”
“I still get texts to this day from people that are working there,” Marvin said. “From my former staff to officers who are in a bad way.”
When Dep. Chief Grizzell learned of the interviews given by Thompson and Marvin to 10TV back in October, she sent a text message to about a dozen officers asking all on and off-duty officers to come to a city council meeting to show support of Chief Baker. She also says “If you are going to share this message please only do so with people who support the Chief.” Days later, Chief Baker through an internal email where he called this story “media sensationalism,” advised no one come to the council meeting.
Begeny says after a troubling few years, internally, the number one focus has been accountability. He knows different leadership can open the door to pushback. That’s why the survey and the steps the city now has to determine are crucial to getting everyone back on track.
“What if it is leadership,” Somerville asked Begeny. “Do we get rid of leadership?”
“I think that’s when you’re looking at a different evaluation of things,” Begeny said. “If we’re still dealing with the same exact issues six months from now, a year from now, and we’ve taken a number of steps that have gone a certain way and just nothing is changing, then we’re gonna have to reevaluate at this time.”
Mayor Begeny says he is confident with Baker and his leadership team to make necessary changes.
“Well, I was disappointed with that statement,” Baker said of Begeny’s “evaluation” comment. “I’ve had many conversations with the mayor about the direction of the agency and I think we’re moving in the same direction.”