Third in a series. 

Re: “Bixby Response: Keep Doing What We Are Doing” 

Now that Walter Scott has been buried after having been inexplicably shot eight times by a South Carolina cop, there is no chance the high-profile murder will be allowed to fade – especially in police departments across the country.

In a distant and small community such as Culver City, Police Chief Scott Bixby has kept the case in front of his officers and also this town.

He said last week that “we need to do everything we possibly can to gain the community’s trust.

“We must continue to be open. Community outreach is one way.”

After a lifetime, 35 years, in law enforcement, even now Mr. Bixby can’t stop thinking about the frightening video of Mr. Scott, that the murder was committed by one of his kind, a police officer.

On the day after the video surfaced, it was public topic – not whispered – at the department.

“First thing after I arrived,” Mr. Bixby said, “we were talking about it.

“Anytime something like this happens, you look at it and think, ‘This is going to have an impact on law enforcement in general.’

“As Culver City P.D., we get together. We talk about it. We let everybody know. We show things like that in (the daily) briefing.”

The chief started to describe a potentially similar scenario. “Are we doing something that maybe could get us into a situation like the one in South Carolina?” the chief asked. “But I can’t even put it like that because I don’t know what was going through the officer’s mind. We all saw the same thing. I don’t understand it. I just don’t.”

(To be continued)