October 28, 2004

To Better Serve and Protect
Preserving the peace and protecting human rights through the lessons of the Holocaust

My remarks tonight have focused on the history of our training program and the lessons that the Holocaust holds for our police officers of today and tomorrow. But as we move forward – especially in a world where the threat of terrorism is real and ever-present – I think we need to look beyond the field of policing … and look for ways to incorporate the lessons of the Holocaust into the consciousness and the training of other professionals as well. For while the police played a central role in carrying out the Holocaust, they by no means did it alone. It took the involvement and complicity of many others – lawyers, judges, teachers, doctors, the clergy and more. All doctors, for example, take the Hippocratic oath pledging, above all else, “to do no harm.” But during the Holocaust, doctors on a routine basis conducted unbelievably cruel and vicious experiments on other human beings.

So just as police officers during the Holocaust lost touch with the communities they served and the oaths they took, so, too, did countless members of other professions. I think it is time for the leaders of these professions to look at how they, too, could use this momentous event in history – and the many educational resources that exist today to help us understand the Holocaust – to train better doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers, clergy members and other professionals for the 21st Century. For members of these professions, the lessons of the Holocaust are just as powerful and relevant as they have proven to be for our police officers.

American philosopher George Santayana probably summed it up best, in his much quoted statement from 1905: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As we move forward in a new and uncertain world, it is critically important that all people – but especially our police officers – heed Santayana’s advice and “remember the past.” By helping our officers remember, understand and appreciate the lessons of the Holocaust, I believe that we are helping to ensure that the police will always stand up for human rights and individual freedom, as we go about our jobs of preserving the peace.

And I want to encourage all of you to keep up your important work of “remembering the past … and educating for the future” as well. Trust me … there are a lot of other people out there like myself when I became chief in Washington, DC – people who may not know a lot about the Holocaust today, but people who can do some amazing things once they have had a little exposure and a little bit of knowledge. Go out and find those people, educate them – and our communities and our democracies will be much safer and stronger because of your efforts.

I want to thank you once again for the honor of being your speaker tonight. And let me close by offering an invitation to you to come visit Washington, DC, and, if possible, see our training program in action. I think you will be moved and impressed. Thank you very much.

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