Philando Castile in 2016 in Minnesota, Eric Garner in 2014 in Staten Island, New York; Breeona Taylor in March in Louisville, Kentucky; George Floyd in May in Minneapolis, Dreasjon “Sean” Reed, also in May, in Indianapolis are some of the Black people who died at the hands of police sparking protests and riots in communities nationwide.
A group of the state’s top law enforcement officials came together Tuesday to talk about the role of police in a forum designed to address systemic racism.
Figures compiled in a Northeastern Univerity-Harvard Universary data-driven study of shooting deaths by police across 27 states in 2014-15, based on details culled from police and medical-examiner reports compiled by the National Violent Death Reporting System show that a Black pearson is disproportinatley more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white person, a situation panelists believe could be improved by getting the Fraternal Order of Police involved in community conversations.
Despite the national attention, data from Mapping Police Violence online database shows that harm at the hands of police officers has risen since 2013.
Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez and Prosecutor Bernard Carter joined the panel along with civil rights activist and leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., former executive director and CEO of the NAACP and a former assistant to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for “The Bridge Forum – Time for Change,” hosted by HeroZona Foundation.
Chavis was joined by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
“We have reached a pivotal point in our nation’s history when it comes to issues of race and justice. The very future of America is at stake,” Hill said.
Following a brief slate of speakers including Hill, Chavis addressed questions to the panel, which included Randal Taylor, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department chief; Douglas G. Carter, Indiana State Police Superintendent; William Owensby, president Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, and Lynda Williams, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement.
Chavis said the time has come to bring all those involved, including the community representatives, lawmakers, educators, mental health professionals, religious leaders, law enforcement and the FOP, to discuss how to move forward. Talks that do not involve police will not work.
“If you are going to talk about improving police and community relations you have got to have FOP involved,” Chavis said.
Taylor, who has been in law enforcement for 33 years, said over that time he has seen good advancements and some bad setbacks.
“When people talk the history of law enforcement, we’ve made mistakes, we’ve taken some wrong turns, across the nation and here locally in Indianapolis,” Taylor said, adding some of the changes made recently within the department are a step in the right direction.
Williams said there is a need for national standards for the civilian advisory boards that are forming to carry on the conversations about race, equality and change.
Martinez said community engagement plays an important role in how police interact with citizens.
“Most people, the majority of citizens, do support us,” Martinez said. Most complaints he receives from citizens are not about police misdeeds, but about drug or gang activity in their neighborhoods.
“They want help,” Martinez said.
Effective policing is about having a relationship with the community. It is about having officers who live in the community and go to the local churches and businesses and listen to their community’s needs, he said.
Chavis asked Owensby, the voice of the state’s police, if police are capable of policing themselves when a problem officer is identified.
Owensby said the state is looking at decertification of law enforcement personnel when they are involved in certain incidents. He said nobody wants to work beside or with a bad cop. He described the idea police will protect bad officers as a false narrative.
“It’s a misnomer the police profession is broken, it isn’t. We take pride in how we protect the citizens of our communities,” Owensby said.
For Carter, Chavis asked how he deals with what many believe is the resurgence of systemic racism. Carter said in his office he is working to have the attorneys and staff more accurately represent the demographics of the county.
Some confrontations between police and the Black community do not have to escalate to the point of arrest if there was more understanding of those differences, he said.
“It is real important to understand America has a huge and ugly racial background,” Carter said. He said he is not talking about individuals, but about the government and the damage caused to the African American community by legislation and the Supreme Court, which did everything possible to hurt African Americans and hold them back and make them less than.
“We are still haunted by that. How we correct that is the key question,” Carter said.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
