OPINION: Sunnyside police must change workplace behavior

This editorial was published in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

From the sound of it, the Sunnyside Police Department has gotten away with a warning after a recent investigation by the city’s human resources found numerous incidents of inappropriate workplace behavior.

In this case, maybe that’s enough.

The report detailed specific examples of racist, sexist and ageist pranks over time. It offered little evidence that three officers meant any harm from a Juneteenth incident, however.

“The investigation found that this conduct was done in good nature and without malice,” the report said.

A Black department employee even told the Herald-Republic that “he hopes that nobody gets in trouble because of this, as this was a joke amongst friends.”

That’s a gracious response, but the officers’ conduct is unacceptable.

It displayed their ignorance of a simple truth: It doesn’t matter whether you mean for your words or actions to harass someone — intentions don’t define harassment.

The Sunnyside officers also violated a number of city policies, including anti-harassment rules and codes of conduct. And at the very least, they showed astoundingly poor judgment and a lack of empathy.

Newly hired City Manager Mike Gonzalez had a blunt take on the detectives’ behavior:

“Frankly, it was a dumb decision,” he said. “It’s something we won’t tolerate.”

Given the Herald-Republic finding that these kinds of office hijinks are “commonplace” in the police department, we hope Gonzalez stands by that pledge.

We also hope that the officers will learn something from this embarrassing ordeal. As disappointing as it is to hear of anyone thinking that it’s somehow OK to make crude and offensive jokes, we suspect harsher measures against these detectives — such as dismissing them — would be pointless.

Punitive steps wouldn’t necessarily change the culture. Further training might.

Sunnyside’s human resources director, Lucia Navarro, said the entire police department will undergo anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training by the end of this year.

“We take this as an opportunity to learn and grow. Individuals are not perfect,” Navarro said. “We want to better serve the public, and each other.”

Good. Some meaningful training is apparently long overdue in Sunnyside.

But our guess is that the kinds of jokes that have evidently been going on for years in the Sunnyside P.D. aren’t uncommon across a number of workplaces, and that most of it isn’t meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.

That doesn’t make it right, though. Sunnyside’s experience should serve as a cautionary example to all of us — a reminder to think before we speak, and to consider what effects our words and actions might have on others.

We hope the training that awaits Sunnyside’s officers helps them learn some lessons that should be second nature in workplaces everywhere.

TNS