How South Bend native Charles King aims to bridge the gap between police, residents

SOUTH BEND — Charles King, the recently named director of South Bend’s Community Police Review Office, said he knew peers growing up on the city's west side who came from troubled homes and had fraught run-ins with police.

He was a Black kid in America, so his parents were blunt when discussing policing with him and his four sisters. You can’t do certain things, they would say. You have to manage yourselves.

But his parents also held a "tight leash" and steered him in the right direction, he said. They emphasized that it was his responsibility to behave and control what he could.

Interacting with frustrated residents while reviewing complaints of police misconduct, “I’ll think about all of the times that it could have been me," King told The Tribune in an interview last week at Greater St. Matthew Church, where he’s been a pastor for more than two decades.

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His family's way to combat unease toward law enforcement also involved getting to know the officers.

“I knew most of the policemen in my neighborhood,” King said. “I could go to their house. If my parents needed to ask a question, they could call them.”

In an era where people seem more disconnected in general, King said, he seeks to humanize South Bend Police Department officers. Part of that is to create opportunities for residents to learn how police do their jobs. Otherwise, he said, a lack of positive encounters with law enforcement erodes trust in the department’s mission to “protect and serve."

In addition to monthly meetings of the Community Police Review Board, King said during a public forum in March, he hopes to host “small meetings where people can get together and talk with officers and find out information about policing, find out how things work.”

“One of the biggest challenges,” he added, “is if you don’t know how policing works, you’ll get offended by something that you may not have all the information on.”

What King will do to build trust as South Bend police review office director

The practical side of King’s role, as outlined in a 2020 ordinance, is to field complaints of misconduct against officers and work alongside SBPD’s internal affairs office to review them.

He can present findings to the nine members of the review board, who have yet to be chosen. (Applications are available through the common council’s webpage by following the link to join a committee, board or commission.) Those members can make policy recommendations to Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski and disciplinary recommendations to the Board of Public Safety, which is responsible for demotion, firing and hiring.

City ordinance sets King's director job salary as between $60,000 and $66,625, which comes from the funding for the civilian review office and board.

But with only one use-of-force complaint filed in 2022, according to city officials, King’s broader goal will be community engagement.

“The top goal for (the police review) office is that we achieve better relations with our community. …,” said South Bend Mayor James Mueller, who named King director last week. “Of course, making sure that our system is just and fair is definitely a big part of that. But this office’s part of it is with an eye toward making sure we have as good of relationships with the community as possible.”

That mission was delayed nearly two years after the initial director, Joshua Reynolds, quit in fall 2021 following a Tribune report that showed he had been suspended seven times in as many years working as an Indianapolis police officer.

Meanwhile, responses to a 2022 community survey commissioned by the city show that only 40% of respondents said they were satisfied with the relationship between police officers and residents. Nearly 30% said they were dissatisfied.

Satisfaction rates are still lower for questions about police visibility in neighborhoods and commercial areas. The problem seems to have worsened during the pandemic, data shows.

Police officials have said proactive policing declined in recent years because the department was short-staffed. But with a slew of recent hires bringing the force to budgeted levels, leaders have mentioned efforts to attend neighborhood meetings and to monitor traffic.

King said he understands why residents may be hesitant to voice grievances against an officer. His goal is to bridge that gap while respecting that officers are paid to serve what is often a disciplinary function.

“When this is all said and done, our police officers are part of our community,” King said. “So we need to make sure that we have the right formula to hold them accountable and still get the quality that we expect.”

Charles King's path through South Bend to police review director

King’s urge toward community-building follows a variety of roles he’s held in his hometown. To lead the police review office starting May 15, he’ll leave his job as director of community and urban youth services at the YMCA of Greater Michiana.

Charles King: In 2021, the director of local YMCA youth programs followed in his mentor's footsteps

But his engagement started modestly. He was a student at LaSalle High School in the early '90s when he took a job at Martin’s Super Markets. He discovered a penchant for interacting with customers.

“I wanted to be around the people,” he said, “and I loved being on the frontline, where people walk in and you get to engage them as soon as they hit the door.”

He graduated from high school in 1994 and took college courses for two years. But he decided not to finish his degree. He would work at Martin’s for more than a decade.

Shortly after high school, King said, he felt called to serve in the ministry.

The congregation started as a handful of people who met in the basement of the 1st Source Bank building on Portage Avenue. Eventually, they moved to a property on West Washington Street before building the current church on Marquette Boulevard.

In two dozen years as a pastor, King has grown the Greater St. Matthew Church congregation to hundreds of people.

He began a career in sales in the mid-2000s, including nine years working for ASM Global, an international company that manages Century Center. But he immersed himself in the community through his ministry and volunteer work with organizations like Men’s Talk, which empowers men to be engaged family members and citizens.

At the YMCA, King has worked with kids ages 2-13 in the nonprofit’s sports programs. He’s especially proud of his work with Friday Night Hoops, where middle-schoolers from across the region “come play basketball, hang out with instructors and we teach them about life.”

“We’re life-coaching them,” King said of the hoopers. “When they’re tired, it’s a little easier to keep them still. We let them run up and down the court, get a little bit of the game out of them, and then when they sit that’s an opportunity … for community violence prevention groups to engage with those young people.”

He sees a role for Friday Night Hoops and similar programs in his efforts to enhance trust between young people and the police department. He wants kids to understand how officers are trained to think, and vice versa.

“In a role like this, I think the biggest way to break down barriers is to put the kids and their parents in an environment where police officers are going to be there," King said. "How would it look to see one of the officers life-coaching one of the kids at Friday Night Hoops?"

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend police review office director aims to enhance trust, transparency