Officers who had been sitting at desks stood up. Staff members who had been moving through the hallways stopped walking. Everyone in the building understood that the man walking through that door was their new commanding officer, and they stood at attention the way the arrival of a new chief demanded. Everyone except officers Kyle Bennett and Jason Marsh, who weren't standing at attention because they were frozen completely still with expressions on their faces that had gone far past pale and into something closer to terror. They had been dreading this morning since the moment Collins showed them that memo 7 days ago, and now the moment was here, and there was nowhere to go and nothing to say that would change what they had done.
Dwayne walked to the front of the room and stood at the podium that had been set up for his formal address to the department. He looked out at the assembled officers and staff, and when he spoke his voice was calm and clear and carried the authority of someone who had earned every year of the rank he now held. He talked about his vision for the department. He talked about the reforms he was going to implement, the training that would be mandatory for every officer, the community engagement programs he was going to establish, and the accountability structures that were going to be put in place to make sure that complaints were reviewed properly and patterns were identified before they became lawsuits. He spoke for 12 minutes, and the room listened to every word.
And then his tone changed in a way that was subtle but impossible to miss. His voice stayed calm, but the weight behind it shifted into something harder and more deliberate. Seven days ago I was returning from a morning run in my neighborhood when I stopped to break up a fight between two women on the street. No one else intervened. I stepped in because it was the right thing to do, and within 5 minutes of doing that, I was on my knees and handcuffs being transported to the station while the woman I had been trying to help told officers I was the attacker.
The room was absolutely silent. I did not identify myself as incoming chief because I wanted to observe exactly how this department handles situations involving men in this city, and what I experienced that morning confirmed everything I needed to know about why this department requires significant reform. Dwayne looked up from the podium and found Bennett and Marsh standing in the crowd without any difficulty because both of them looked like they had stopped breathing. Officers Bennett and Marsh. His voice was flat and final.
Step forward. Both men stepped forward slowly, and the officers standing around them created a visible space that made their isolation in front of the entire department impossible to miss. Effective immediately, you are both suspended from active duty pending a full internal affairs investigation into your conduct. You will surrender your badges and service weapons before leaving this building today. Neither man spoke.
Dwayne continued without raising his voice by a single degree. My investigation into your records over the past 6 months identified 23 arrests that lack documented probable cause and follow a consistent pattern of targeting black men in residential districts. Every complaint filed against you during that period was either dismissed without proper review or left pending without resolution. That pattern ends today and the investigation into your full arrest history will determine what comes next. He looked at both of them for a moment longer then looked back at the room.