okay
good morning uh welcome
welcome all of you uh to our swearing-in
of chief lewis
i'm going to acknowledge a couple of the
dignitaries that we have here this
morning i'm going to miss somebody i
know i will and chief lewis is also
going to fill in some of the blanks
because we have a room full of very
impressive individuals and thank you all
of us for joining us
so first off i want to welcome and
acknowledge our former mayor mayor
madison thank you for joining us
and the honorable senator herschel craig
is here senator greg
the newly minted colonel of the ohio
state highway patrol colonel jones thank
you for coming
we also have with us the director of the
ohio department of public safety
director stickrath thank you for being
here
our council members in no particular
order council member assad
lampke
fibel and marcelino is also here with us
this morning thank you
and we also have a couple members of our
interview committee uh without whom
chief lewis would not be standing in
this room
uh so i wanted to welcome and recognize
john offenberg and lee nathan
and now chief lewis to introduce some of
our other guests
yes so i'll first start by saying thank
you for everyone i'm going to bring you
over here to the camera
we'll start again
thank you everyone for being here i
wanted to acknowledge some very very
special people
i'll get to my family second but i want
to recognize people professionally and
personally been very close to me
i'll start with colonel rice who former
superintendent of the ohio state highway
patrol
arnold ken morkle also former
superintendent and director of public
safety
lieutenant colonel watts
patrol
colonel ritz
the ohio state university chief of
police kimberly spears mcnatt
and chief crispin from whitehall police
department
thank you chief
i also want to thank and recognize our
current interim chief of police interim
chief goff thank you ken goff for your
service during this time
so
what is an oath of office
it's a vow
solemnly and soberly made
to uphold the laws of our city of our
state and of our country and in doing so
to protect the innocent
bring justice to those who have been
wronged
and to honor the rights and dignity of
the individual
in our community
we expect this duty to manage to
manifest itself in a way that ensures
equitable treatment to all
builds up
and unites our neighborhoods
and ensures the safety
and the security of our homes
our streets
our places of worship and our refuges
for bexley this is a very momentous day
indeed we don't take the role of chief
lightly and it's not often that we
welcome a new chief to our ranks
our expectation
is that our chief of police serves to
ground
and elevate this agency with a clear
vision
high standards and a compassionate
posture
and in doing so
is inspired by
and serves as an inspiration to our
communities
chief lewis
after a long and exacting process
to select our next chief of police
we are honored and we're excited to be
welcoming you to bexley today
and to be formula formally and so on you
is bexley's next chief of police we
tried to count how many chiefs of police
we've had we know that we've had six
since 1959 five since 1959.
we're gonna get a complete number uh
we're a little late in doing that count
it's because we don't do it that often
so that's good news
in fact i believe mayor madison swore in
our last chief of police 14 years ago so
this is a rare moment indeed
chief lewis i would like to welcome you
to make remarks before we administer the
oath of office
thank you thank you
i want to first and foremost thank the
lord for this opportunity i have truly
been blessed and without him and his
direction and guidance and setting forth
this path i have to just pause and say
thank you
to those who have been extremely
instrumental in my life thank you for
being here
you know my law enforcement journey
started over 30 years ago
and i asked my uncle daryl to be here
with me today
michael darrell is my superhero
he meant the world to me and just being
an example he was a columbus detective
and i went to him
and just said um i need a career or
something after i got out of art college
he encouraged me to look at doing
composite sketch artists
and
directed me and pushed me towards
different agencies and so i thank you
for that um being such an amazing
example um me being a father of five now
i'm back then um being a father of four
boys he a father of six boys just an
amazing legacy
that takes me to
my point legacy
30 years
the people in this room
those who came before me
the legacy
in which we are here to uphold
the legacy for
my children for this organization for
this great community this great city i
think about the legacy of so many people
who came before me the first african
americans who were
part of the highway patrol in which my
career started to be the first
african-american police chief in this
community it means something to me i
take that very seriously
i take this call very seriously it's an
honorable amazing profession it's
something that it's hard to get people
to want to do right now and what's going
on across our country but if we do it
with integrity we deal with dedication
we do with transparency we will be able
to change and impact this next
generation of law enforcement thank you
to my family my mother
my sister my grandmother
my nephew and soon to be niece coming
along the way
my amazing sons who are here with me my
grandchildren my daughter-in-law and i
would be remiss if i don't pause and say
thank you to my phenomenal wife we've
been together now for about 12 years
been married for five and she blessed me
with that beautiful sometimes uh
you're saying cantankerous
three-year-old appreciation
and so at uh at nearly 54 and
three-year-old it takes a lot of prayer
a lot of patience um and lastly i want
to say as as far as legacy
when i retire from the highway patrol i
was blessed with a phenomenal
opportunity to work at ohio state
university i worked for one of the most
dynamic amazing leaders in gail saunders
and gail has just been an inspiration
she personified
professionalism she's personified
everything that i have hoped to be
when i then transitioned to cleveland
state went to louisville she's a
universal louisville alum
and every time she came to louisville
she made sure to stop by my office to
see me
that
means the world to me
and lastly i'll leave you with this
one of my mentors by the name of greg
rogers
greg was just a phenomenal man
um met him when i first went to the
mountain patrol post you know 1300
and greg said there's no substitute for
loyalty there's no substitute for loads
and i've never forgotten that
greg had pinned a letter to me long
after his passing
and that letter came to me on my 50th
birthday
and i opened it up
and read those words
pin 1300
i've never forgotten that
and i've passed that on to this next
generation there are some in this room
who i have taken personally and said i
want to mentor and be a part of your
journey and i share those words so that
the next generation and greg's memory
will live on i'm honored to be here i
thank the mayor this amazing city
council so many leaders in here and
family that have meant the world to me
so it's a great honor and i appreciate
it so thank you honor is ours
are you ready
was your last moment to walk away
if you would sir please raise your right
hand and repeat after me
hi gary d lewis jr hi gary d lewis jr do
solemnly swear do solemnly swear that i
will support the constitutional laws i
will support the constitutional laws of
the united states of america of the
united states of america the
constitution and laws of the state of
ohio the constitution and the state of
ohio
and the laws and ordinances and the laws
and ordinances of the city of backslid
of the city of baxford and i will
discharge the duties i will discharge
the duties of the office of chief of
police
to the duties of the office of chief of
police to the best of my ability to the
best of my abilities welcome aboard
all right that concludes the ceremony
itself we're gonna get some photos with
family with colleagues with mentees
whatever whoever you want photos with um
we've got a photographer here and we
have lots of phones so uh
we