FFRF got the Neenah, Wis., Police Department to remove references to faith and God from its official mission statement.
A complainant reported that the Neenah Police Department’s website indicated that the department operated under the “Pillars of P.R.I.D.E.” The first pillar is labeled “priorities,” which lists three values: “Faith, family, work.” The website states that “Our personal convictions about faith define all that we do. Family is valued above work.” Similarly, in 2019, the report included the same pillar, with values listed as “God, Family, Work.” In 2021, the Neenah PD Policy Manual described the “Priorities” pillar as “our personal convictions about faith define all that we do.”
FFRF Legal Fellow Sammi Lawrence wrote to Chief Aaron L. Olson about the constitutional issue.
City Attorney David C. Rashid wrote back to FFRF, informing it that the pillar had been changed, noting that they “modified the purportedly offensive language on the police department’s website concerning the use of the word ‘God’ as well as any other verbiage in the ‘P’ box of the Pillars (part of the Mission Statement) after the first sentence thereof.”
