04/06/2021
This past Tuesday night, the political review was blessed with the opportunity to meet with Sheriff Michael Chitwood via zoom.
Mike has a bachelors degree in organization management, a masters degree in criminal justice, and graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2001. He worked for the Philadelphia Police Department from 1988-2005, served as the Shawnee, Oklahoma Chief of Police from 2005-2006, and then served as the Daytona Beach Chief of Police from 2006-2016. Mike was then elected Sheriff of Volusia County, Florida in 2016, and then re-elected in 2020, where he currently serves. He is recognized for his heroism, merit, bravery, and valor.
Throughout our short time with Mike, we talked about the current fear and anger towards police around the country right now. Mike gave us hope as he pointed out that a majority of police officers are there to serve the community and want to leave things better than they found them, but the few bad eggs, (though inexcusable), get the most attention.
We admire how Mike is starting his own police academy wherein he wants to implement mental health awareness training, implicit bias training, and racism training. He believes that in the police force the sanctity of life comes first and that all people deserve to be treated with understanding and respect. He says that if you’re going to police this country, you need to learn about it and have empathy.
Mike acknowledges that though becoming a police officer comes with many risks, it is a very noble profession. As students of BYU, we recognize that though being a police officer is hard, you also experience many miracles and blessings as you get to directly serve and help others in need.
Mike also pointed out how easy it is to throw rocks at the police, but we need everyone in order to better improve any community. The police need our feedback. We need to let them know from our perspective how we think we could improve the community together.
When asked, “What would you tell this generation of college students?” Chief Chitwood replied, “Change begins with you. If you want change, you’re the generation that’s gonna do that.”