Here’s the first question I asked Fishers Police Chief George Kehl at the August 12th news briefing – when did he know it was time to retire? Before the chief could get his answer out, Mayor Scott Fadness chimed in – “Whenever I made him mad.” The room erupted in laughter.
On August 11th, it was announced that long-time Fishers Police Chief George Kehl would be retiring in September of 2016.
With a number of news outlets asking to interview Chief Kehl, Current in Fishers Editor James Feichtner and myself had the first chance to speak with him. Below are the questions and issues discussed by Chief Kehl and Mayor Fadness.
Chief Kehl on when he knew it was time to retire
“Probably, about the last eight months I’ve been thinking about it. You know when it’s the right time. A lot of retired chiefs… we’ve talked about it over the past, you’ll know when it’s right. You’ll wake up some day and say, ‘hey, it’s time.'”
Chief Kehl: When you became the part-time Fishers Town Marshal in the 1070s, did you ever imagine a Fishers that looks like this?
“Not probably, until the mid 80s, you could see the trend starting to happen on the east side. Once they put that sewer line under I-69, all bets were off. I knew eventually those farmers would be selling their land because I went to high school with most of the kids, they weren’t interested in farming, they were starting to move away, they were getting up in age. What happens is a domino effect, start selling all the property, and that’s where we’re at today. There’s a standing joke, as soon as they put a McDonalds in the growth starts.”
Chief Kehl: Anything strike you as the toughest case you had to deal with as chief?
“Probably, the three homicides we had. Because you never expect that to happen in a community like this, nor do you want it to happen. Those were the three toughest ones, especially the first one we had in the mid to early 80s, homicide of a female in a model home.”
Chief Kehl: Watching Fishers grow, as its grown so much, what have the challenges been for you managing that?
“Budget’s always a challenge. The hiring processes are always a challenge, make sure you get the best quality people. We’ve had times where candidate pools were just not good at all, when the economy, job market was good. On the flip side, when the economy is bad you get a huge pool of applicants, and it’s even more difficult to find good, qualified people out of a large pool like that.”
Chief Kehl: As far as the growth of the department, how has that been, going to an accredited establishment?
“The accreditation was a challenge, it took three years to get there. Our main goal was, and we succeeded in that, was getting everybody to buy into the accreditation process. It’s not easy. It takes everybody to chip in on that. If you don’t get buy-in, you get resistance and then your process just will not work. We were very fortunate that Lieutenant Johnson was our first accreditation manager and he did an excellent job putting that together.”
Mayor Fadness: Would you comment on the growth of the police department?
“Somewhere along the line, someone should do a case study on George in terms of leadership. Think back to the 70s when George took over law enforcement as a part-time marshal (looking at Chief Kehl) you didn’t have any formal education in law enforcement, no criminal justice background. So he takes that job and goes from a part-time town marshal to 104 sworn law enforcement individuals, nationally accredited department. In the decade I’ve been here we’ve never once had an issue of integrity with a law enforcement officer, in one of the fastest growing communities in the country. Even this year we had two homicides, one which was very difficult because there was…really no cut and dried….there was really no motivation behind it, right? So, it’s how to connect the dots. These guys have risen to every single challenge that’s been brought to them. It’s been led by a guy who started as a part-time town marshal 1978 (full time in 1978). I like to remind George that was before I was born. You think about the leadership skills that are required to do that, and have the respect of all the troops year in and year out. Another thing too, I think a police chief’s job has got to be one of the hardest jobs out there, in terms of staying on top of things. It could come at you in any way, shape or form – a bad shooting, integrity issue in your department, a morale issue, politics. All that stuff George has had to manage for 30-some years. You are the longest standing police chief in Indiana and you might be right up there in the country. That’s not some small podunk community, that’s a community that’s grown from 2,000 people to (between) 86,000 to 88,000. That’s pretty extraordinary.”
Mayor Fadness: On Monday you talked to the local school employees about how important the schools are in bringing people to Fishers. Talk about the police department and how important that is for a growing community like Fishers?
“I think you can turn your TV on at any given time and the police department, I think, is important for a couple of reasons. One, for all the reasons you traditionally think of, which is they protect you from the bad guys. But also, in today’s world, to have a department that still inspires confidence of your residents, that they believe that their law enforcement agency has integrity, that their law enforcement agency is professional. To maintain that in the community is essential because at some point when your residents don’t believe that your police department is a resource of safety and integrity, you see how things spiral out of control very quickly. The fact that our department has such a high approval rating with our residents, and that it has such a good professional perception, I think is critical for our community.
Chief Kehl: Recently, you have had multiple applicants for any opening. I know you have a hiring process, but you make the final hiring decisions. Talk about the kind of police officer you want to see when you’re looking to hire.
“We want to see somebody that’s dedicated and wants to make it a profession, not just a job for a couple of years and leave. We look at their integrity, their moral character. We look at their education. We look for their common sense. To be in this profession, you have to have a certain level of common sense. It’s not all about books. You have to be able to make good, sound judgments. We’ve developed a process where we feel works for us. The final review any candidate has is not only with me, it’s with the Assistant Chief and the captains. As a team, we discuss each applicant after we have an interview with them, and we come to a collective consensus on that candidate, and it works.”
Chief Kehl: As Mitch Thompson assumes the chief’s job next year, what are the biggest challenges he’s going to face?
“We’re in a unique situation here. Our command staff works as a team and we make decisions together. Mitch has been involved in every aspect of the decision making process and everything that I do. He won’t have many challenges. The biggest challenge he’s going to have is, I’m going to be gone, there’s a new leader, so what we’ll work on the next year is to get all the employees to embrace him. That won’t be a difficult job at all. I saw that yesterday in the announcement when he spoke to our officers. We feel very fortunate he had that warm reception.”
Chief Kehl: How did you go about making the announcement to the police department staff?
“We had an annual meeting scheduled September 8th. I didn’t want to have to wait that long. The worst thing we could do is let rumors get started because, they come up with every concoction in the world what the meeting’s going to be about. 24 hours before, I changed the meting date. There was a lot of speculation, as you can imagine. Nothing you wouldn’t expect. Just made the announcement yesterday (August 11th). It worked out fine.”
Chief Kehl: Have you already started thinking about your retirement plans?
“No, because I have another year and one month here and my focus is on this agency and this community for another year.”
(at this point Mayor Fadness stepped in to say the following)
“I’m already thinking about it for him. One thing I think is important is that George Kehl stays an active member of our community as a leader. Whatever that looks like and however we can plug him in we need to make sure he’s not done with serving Fishers yet. I won’t let him be done with that. I’ll make sure George is still around.”
Chief Kehl: Looking back, what are your favorite memories of being chief? Things you’re going to miss?
“I’m going to miss is the people. You have to understand, policing today, in our society, is extremely difficult. It’s very critical. It’s not going to go back. I’m not going to miss that. I’m going to miss the people. Most favorite memories? Probably going to the FBI National Academy. That was a true honor. Being Past President of the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police. It’s a huge honor to lead the group of chiefs statewide. We had a tremendous amount of success that year. The organization has continued to build. We’re very active in the legislature every year. Those things make me extremely proud to serve.”