A Q&A with Culver City Police Chief Scott Bixby

Robert Gagnier-How long have you been the Chief of the Culver City Police Department?

Chief Bixby-I have been Chief since April of 2014.

Robert Gagnier: Just how much of an influence was the former Chief of Police Ted Cooke on you?

Chief Bixby: In my view he was a great man and great Chief-and he had a huge influence on me. I often tell
people that I feel as though I came up under the “Vince Lombardi of Police Chiefs”. He was a very colorful gentleman who was both honorable and ethical. And while at times he may have been viewed as
controversial to some, I think you will find that the overwhelming majority of the people of Culver City are very thankful for what he did for this community as a whole.

Robert Gagnier: What do you feel is the community's current perception of the Culver City Police Department
and how that evolved under Chief Cooke?

Chief Bixby: I think the community as a whole feels as though Culver City is a lot safer because of our
department and how Chief Cooke ran it. We take great pride in having a reputation of being fair and professional. In fact, one of our core values is professionalism. A lot of our tradition is in fact based
on Chief Cooke's teachings. I am very grateful that I was influenced by Chief Cooke. He was a huge mentor for me-a very good man.

Robert Gagnier: Can you talk about some of CCPD's Measures of Effectiveness?

Chief Bixby: The Measures of Effectiveness allow us to look at and rate ourselves as an
organization and see how we are doing. To begin with; we look at our response time, which is typically around three minutes on emergency calls. When someone calls the police, they want us there like
yesterday. And while three minutes may seem like a short amount of time; if you are in trouble and need the police that can seem like an eternity. To keep that response time as low as we can, we divided the
city into districts, and try to have a certain amount of cars in a given district of the city at all times. Being proactive is another measure, which helps us to try to to reduce and prevent crime in the
city. When crime does happen here; like any department we like to solve our cases as soon as possible. We currently enjoy a clearance rate of about twice the national average.

Robert Gagnier: Can you talk about the current moral of the Culver City Police Department, particularly in
light of some of the recent tragic events that have taken place involving law enforcement around the country?

Chief Bixby: Our officers here are happy and its because of the way we maintain moral-we are fair andconsistent. We try to treat everyone equally and if we make a mistake we deal with it-whether that requires discipline or counseling or training. We hold one another accountable here. We really try hard toimplement and maintain what we call the “Five P's”. Our officers try to be proactive; while acting professional, with pride, and passion, in partnership with the community.

Robert Gagnier: Can you elaborate on the Partnership with the Community?

Chief Bixby: We really work hard when it comes to the partnership with the community. I think sometimes
people just think of us when we are writing tickets or arresting people. The fact is that the majority of what we do is community relations. We are involved in about everything you can imagine, from
the YMCA, the Explorers, Coffee with a Cop, Neighborhood Watch, Teen Police Academy, and the Regular Citizens Police Academy. We are involved with Fair and Impartial Policing, and Procedural Justice
Training as well as the Presidents 21st Century Policing Initiative. If there is an opportunity for us to become involved-we do it. We really try hard to be as transparent as we possibly can. We have an
open house here at the department every other year, where we open the doors and do tours and have activities outside. For me, it is particularly pleasurable to be of service to the community because I grew up here. My mother still lives in the house where I grew up in. I was an explorer myself for this department back when I was 15 years old. So If you count that, I have been with this department one way or another for 41
years. So I have really deep, long, and strong roots in this town. And it was a great place to grow up in, and it is now a great place to work in. The redevelopment agency did a great job with the community and downtown in particular.

Robert Gagnier: Why do you personally think Culver City's Police Department enjoy such high ratings with
its citizenry, and other departments across the country find themselves in the midst of strained, and in some cases hostile relationships with people in their community?

Chief Bixby: I think some of programs I mentioned that we take part in certainly wouldn't hurt some of the
other agencies out there. I think one of the problems they may run into is that some of those other agencies are so big that it may be difficult for them to take part in the programs that we do. Another
factor is our ability to draw top candidates. Here in Culver City you will hear the term “the best and the brightest” as it pertains to our officers. We really do have the luxury of trying to hire the very
best candidates we can find. I think our training is very good and our culture is such that we treat people fairly and understand that we are here to provide a service. And the citizens of this city have
come to expect a high level of service here, and they get it. So, when we implement those programs, we know that it helps serve a cause but you cant just rest on that. It is a constant and ongoing effort
to earn and maintain the trust of the community.

Robert Gagnier: What do you think about the recent tragic occurrences involving law enforcement across the
U.S. and the coverage the media has given it?

Chief Bixby: Well its an unfortunate situation because the perception of law enforcement now in some
peoples' minds is a negative one. Even if the situation starts off as clean and by the book as you can imagine, (for example an officer involved shooting in which a police officer takes someones life- and is completely justifiable), the departments view or take on the incident will fall on deaf ears because we are being painted with a very broad brush. Now I have seen the same incidents that everyone else has on television and in the news and while I know what I saw was disturbing, I am not aware of the facts and don't know everything that happened.

That said, there seems to be this tremendous amount of anti-authority sentiment out there.....and I
want to be clear here by saying in no way am I justifying the end results of any of these well publicized incidents because I am not. I can say that some of the things I have seen, such as the South
Carolina shooting-(The Chief is referring to the incident where the driver was pulled over for a broken tail light and ultimately shot and killed in a park while running away from the officer), was
horrendous. I do know that in everyone of these situations, if people had complied from the very beginning, none of these incidents would have happened. Let me be clear again by saying that in no way does that
necessarily justify what happened in the end of these well publicized events; but had people complied in the very beginning, these incidents would not have ended the way they did. If you think you were or are being mistreated during an incident; by all means ask for a supervisor and they will either arrive on the scene, or you can always come by the department and ask for one after the incident itself.

Robert Gagnier: There was an justified officer involved shooting right there in the parking lot of CCPD
headquarters roughly three to four years ago which resulted in a fatality. Could you comment on how that incident was perceived at the time, and how it relates to this recent wave of anti-authority
sentiment you mentioned earlier?

Chief Bixby: Sure; some time after the incident, a gentleman who lives here in Culver City asked me during a town hall meeting, “Why did you kill that person coming over the wall”? He was referring to that very incident in which a man came determined to climb a wall and come onto our back lot here at the police department (it was a classic case of suicide by cop). He proceeded to pull a gun, and point it at some of our officers who were in the parking lot. Naturally, our officers drew their weapons and ultimately wound up shooting him. And this man went on to ask me “why are your officers trigger happy, and why did they kill that man? I responded to him by saying that the man pulled a gun on our officers; would not put his weapon away, and they shot him. He then said, “they didn't shoot him,they killed him”! I informed him that we are not trained to kill people, we are trained to stop the threat. When he proceeded to pull a gun on them, I asked the gentleman what would you have them do? Are you suggesting they take a couple of rounds before they fire? It was an eye opening experience to me because it showed how there are people out there who remain ignorant and misinformed.
And so, the law enforcement world is going through some tough times, and again we are all painted with a
broad brush. In my experience of 37 years of being paid in this department, the vast majority of officers here have been top notch material. Sure you are going to have a bad apple here and there, but
we typically found out about them internally. I can say that the overwhelming majority of officers here got into this profession because it was a calling. When I was a kid I wanted to be a police
officer because I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to protect the little guy-the guy or girl who couldn't protect themselves. And that's why most of us get involved with this. I think you must have a passion to
be successful in this career. It is hurtful to see what is going on nationwide because the vast majority of the officers I know are all in this for the right reasons and are very good people.

Robert Gagnier: Can you tell us about the recent survey that went out in Culver City asking people to rate
the service level of the various city departments?

Chief Bixby: Sure, it showed that we continue to enjoy a tremendous amount of support from the majority of
the community and also our elected officials. In fact, I was so impressed-I can tell you that 84 percent of the people who responded with either “good” or “excellent”. The city manager was also very proud of those numbers. What other department (forget just police), but any department, gets a turnout of 84 percent of the
feedback being “good to excellent” from out community? I think that speaks volumes.

Robert Gagnier: What is the relationship between CCCPD and Sony Pictures?

Chief Bixby: Sony handles a lot of things internally, but if an issue comes up where they require
assistance we help out. I typically have lunch over there on a monthly basis with their director of security, Steve Bernard-a really nice guy. We're actually planning some joint training with them right
now, and so we have a really great relationship with Sony.

Robert Gagnier: Getting back to that notion of complying with an officer immediately upon being
stopped....is it true that when one admits to an infraction he or she
has a better chance of not being ticketed?

Chief Bixby: Sure-I can recall a time when I pulled over a lady when I was on a motorcycle, whose primary
function is traffic enforcement. And so I stopped this poor lady who had three or four kids in the car who were screaming and yelling. So I wrote the ticket; she starts crying, and she proceeded to drive off
and I felt terrible. I jumped back on my bike and pulled her over a second time and she was like “what did I do this time”? I kindly asked her to give me back the ticket because after all she was going
through, I clearly saw she did need that ticket! And so yes; if you engage in conversation and admit to the officer right up front that you blew it and admit to what you know you did, they just may give
you a break. People forget that we are human. We have parents, dogs, and children just like anyone else. We have homes we go to and eat, then and we sleep at night just like everybody else.

Robert Gagnier-Where do you want to see yourself and the department in the next five years?

Chief Bixby-This is my home and I have been here my entire adult life as well as my adolescence and teen
years. I don't see myself going anywhere. I could have retired years ago but I chose not to as I feel very fortunate and blessed to be in the office that I am in and be surrounded by the good people that
work here with me.
As far as the department as a whole is concerned, I want us to keep doing what we are doing. I know that we
are about to get body cameras here real soon as it was approved in the last budget. We already have our dash cams out there which have been shown to lower the amount of frivolous complaints because many
times we have had people complain and say something but decide on dropping the matter altogether when they later learn that a dash cam had in fact been placed in the car, and we know from experience that
many times people make things up. But I think we are on the right track and we will soon have the city divided into an additional district.

We'll be going from four to five districts because traffic has gotten to a point where in order to keep the response time that I would like for our department to maintain, we needed to carve the city into a
smaller area to make sure cars in those areas can be on the scene quicker. I'd also like to say that the more I can get the word out there in terms of what we as a department are all about, the better
off we all are. We want the community to know that we are transparent and open and are here to do the very best that we can. We are here to help ensure that our citizens enjoy a quality of life that is as high as it possibly can be. We get 250 applications for one opening, and are lucky to be able to send a few of them to
the academy. I don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. We are here trying to do the right thing, and our heart is in the right place.