Put-in-Bay police fail, again

The Put-in-Bay Police Department has left a dirty trail of betrayal of the public trust for years. The chief and village council have done next to nothing to give assurances that it has learned from past mistakes. There has never been any sustained program of reform, and the department's current chief, Steve Riddle, dodges his responsibilities to keep the public informed. Riddle, in our view, should step up, or step aside, and we've seen no evidence he's willing to do either. A couple of years ago, he made no public comments after his officers ignored the former mayor's drunk driving a golf cart and mostly ignored his driving without a license infraction. He also ducked addressing concerns raised after his officers appeared to target a whistleblower, leading to a dangerous standoff and the need to call the Ottawa County sheriff for backup. That incident could easily have ended in tragedy due to the untrained and unprofessional response from local police. But the department's corrupt practices pre-date Riddle. Another incident — in 2016 — did end in tragedy when a fight near the Jet Express boat dock resulted in a man's death. Police failed to take witness statements or gather the evidence before sending everyone home. Whether it was incompetence or corruption — and it could have been either — the failure to properly investigate was never adequately addressed by council and atonement was never made. And prior to that, the police department is credibly alleged to have covered up rape complaints, failed to properly investigate visitors being drugged, robbed and assaulted, and some officers were accused and proven to have violently assaulted an island resident at his home. None of that was ever fully addressed by the council or the village. With that backdrop, the arrests of nine people by island police is naturally suspect. The claims made by the "suspects" that police overreacted and violently attacked them have much more credibility than the one-page police report Riddle authorized to be released, which continues the department's unacceptable practice of not being transparent, or trustworthy. Six men were released from the Ottawa County Jail on Monday after the county prosecutor determined that more review was needed to determine whether the charges were warranted. Ottawa County prosecutor James VanEerten, said he will make a final decision about charges after he reviews all of the video from the body cameras officers were wearing when the incident occurred, and all other videos he might receive from the public. The men say they should never have been arrested, and the local NAACP raised questions about whether the Put-in-Bay police would have even stopped them for having one too many people on a 10-person golf cart if they had been white. It's a valid question, especially given these heightened times of tension between police, the black community and the larger community. Videos posted at social media appear to show at least one of the arrests happened after three police officers charged a suspect who was backing away and showing no aggression toward them. It's not clear if bystanders captured the initial confrontations on video, but the videos we've seen thus far give credence to the claim that police overreacted and mishandled what could have been a simple traffic stop, or no stop at all. We suspect there might be some troubling viewing ahead from both sides once all the available video has been reviewed. But we're fairly certain, given the substandard practices displayed by the Put-in-Bay police department in the past, that this entire incident could have been avoided if the police were able to professionally respond during this traffic stop. Village Mayor Jessica Dress and council, in our view, must demand that police officers be professionally trained in an ongoing, sustained manner, including de-escalation techniques and racial diversity education. They also must require they are appropriately supervised and should expect accountability from every officer and the department's leaders. In other words, stop stinking up law enforcement.