'Smell like your troops'

Building off of his variety of law enforcement experience, Tiffin Police Department's new police chief David Pauly has many changes in store for the department and the community at-large. The first change he made coming into his new position was to make the chief's office into an office for the detective bureau. He has decided to put his own office downstairs. Pauly was in the U.S. Army National Guard for six years, and his idea to move his office downstairs came from something his drill sergeant in basic training told him. "He said 'smell like your troops.' At first, I didn't know what that meant. But I now know it means you have to be in it with your people. It needs to be about them and not you. You have to be present and show effort," he said. Pauly plans on engaging with the dispatchers, officers and detectives to guide and assist them. He also wants to show that he is willing to get in the mix right along with them. One of the pillars of his vision is community outreach. "(Previous police chief) Fred Stevens had great community outreach programs that he put into place. I think some programs may need to be updated and others need to come back," Pauly said. "Community outreach needs to be in the DNA of the department. The community and the department are a team." Pauly said he thinks a program similar to DARE would be beneficial to officers and the community. "DARE's goal was to stop drug abuse," he said. "While I don't think the program did that, it did show kids that officers are good. It showed them that they are human and they are helpful. We can touch the hearts and minds of children and when we do that, we can touch the minds and hearts of parents, too." He mentioned that he would like to see the K-9 unit make a comeback as well. "It all starts with me. I want to be engaged with spiritual, business and education communities. I want the public's views, thoughts and input to solving problems in Tiffin." The second pillar of his vision is wellness and resiliency in police and dispatch. "Nobody should see what they see. But somebody has to and I want to make sure they deal with the trauma." Pauly said he wants to implement a check-in policy where officers and dispatch have an appointment with a therapist who is paid by the city to make sure they're doing OK. He also wants to establish an early warning system to detect issues an employee may be dealing with and work on them before it becomes a larger problem. "If you talk to anyone in the department, they'll tell you they don't do it for recognition, they aren't heroes, they don't need a pat on the back. But they do, everyone does," Pauly said. "I want to ensure people are getting that pat on the back and getting recognition when it is due." The third pillar is agency transparency. "Although the department has been good with using social media, I want to beef that up. I want to get body cams as well." The fourth pillar is professional police training. Pauly said the department needs to get into "21st century policing." An example he provided is teaching bystandership. "When George Floyd happened, we all saw the officer kneeling on Floyd's neck. There were other officers watching him, someone should have stopped him. Bystandership training teaches officers to step in if something is wrong. "It doesn't matter if the other officer is higher up than you, if he's your field training officer, or if it's your first year. You have to say something and I want to teach officers that it's okay to step up," he said. He also wants a focus on leadership training, which he said can be done through the department. "We have experts right here in many different areas. They teach statewide and nationwide. We can benefit from internal training," he said. Pauly would also like to see polygraphing come back to Tiffin Police Department, as he sees it as a useful tool. Although he has many ideas for the department, it is all dependent upon the budget, of course. He said he needs to be strategic with the budget. Pauly has spent time speaking with Seneca County Sheriff Fred Stevens and Fostoria Police Chief Keith Loreno on how they can all better serve their communities. Multijurisdictional projects between the three are currently in their infancy, but Pauly discussed one of the ideas that they have. "Something we've talked about are search teams," he said. "We want to cooperate and collaborate so we can provide each other manpower during search warrants on both a large scale and a small scale. Our relationship will make our cities and county stronger." Pauly was sworn in as chief last month, and he will officially begin to work in his new role Jan. 1.