The Kent Police Department has changed the location of its Coffee with the Chief on Wednesday, Jan. 12 to the Kent City Council Chambers, 220 Fourth Ave. S.
The event is from 8 to 10 a.m. Chief Rafael Padilla will lead the discussion and answer questions about the department. Padilla generally hosts several coffee chats during a year.
Kent Police announced early last week that the coffee would be at the Macrina Bakery in the north Kent Valley. A police department community education unit employee who sent out the change of location did not reply to an email from the Kent Reporter about why the venue was changed.
A Macrina Bakery employee said it received a call from the police department that the location is moving and would be rescheduled at the bakery for another time. The employee said the police provided no other information.
Since the initial venue was announced, the police department and mayor’s office have received much public outcry the last week over its decision in July 2020 to suspend Kent Police Assistant Chief Derek Kammerzell for just two weeks after he posted a Nazi insignia on his officer door in 2020. Mayor Dana Ralph has since asked the police union for his resignation and Padilla has said Kammerzell will never work for the department again.
The suspension didn’t come out publicly until a Kent Police watchdog group filed a Public Records Request and received the documents in late December, which it then sent to several media outlets.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
