By Kelli Wynn,
Staff Writer
9:22 PM Saturday, April 7, 2012
DAYTON ? Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl hopes the city?s latest attempt to improve his department?s relationship with the community will accomplish what no other similar efforts have attempted in the past.
Promote and create a movement based on shared responsibility and mutual accountability.
?No one can put their responsibility on the other party (when it comes to public safety),? Biehl said. ?Public safety is everybody?s business and has always been a civic duty with police playing a unique role.?
The members of the Community Police Council will host a free forum titled, Speak. Be heard. Be considered., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 28 at the Dayton Convention Center. The council is made up of members of the police department, city officials, Fraternal Order of Police and community leaders.
?We want to hear your concerns. We want you to come to the table and stay at the table to address these issues,? said Catherine ?Caty? Crosby, acting executive director for the city?s Human Relations Council and member of the CPC.
The event aims to create dialogue between the police department, Dayton residents and business owners to help improve community police relationships. Police and city personnel will engage participants in small group discussions led by members of Wright State University?s Center for Urban and Public Affairs.
?It?s about building relationships,? said the Rev. Sherry Gale, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church who is also a CPC member. ?We have to hear one another and understand one another. The only way that happens is when we take time to be together and do activities together.?
City Commissioner Joey Williams, a CPC member, said, ?It?s not going to be a bunch of speeches.?
City officials said they want to hear ideas on how to improve the relationship. One way would be for the police department to offer educational programs at local schools and act as mentors for youth, according to Randy Beane, president of the Dayton Fraternal Order of Police. This way police are seen in a positive light.
Citizen engagement will be the result if the mission of the forum is successful, Biehl said. He added that the community and the police must be co-creators of public safety.
Barry Hall, president of the Greater Old North Dayton Business Association and owner of Champion Auto Service, on Millburn Avenue, said the police in the area work with business owners to prevent crime. Working together toward crime prevention is important to Hall when he thinks in terms of the city attracting new businesses. ?Why should they want to do business in an area that they are afraid to be in? Crime has to be under control,? he said. ?Our concern is with keeping the career criminals off the street? (The police) make an effort to do their job better, but once they make an arrest, it?s out of their hands.?
Timely forum
The Rev. Jerome McCorry said the forum could be a success if city officials are receptive to the ideas and efforts of the community?s grass-roots leaders. ?Our city still wants to choose the leadership and you cannot do that. You have to be receptive to who grass-roots people are listening to,? he said.
The council was formed shortly after the July 16 death of Kylen English, 20, who died after he reportedly escaped from a police cruiser while handcuffed, then jumped off the Salem Avenue bridge. English?s family filed a lawsuit last week against the city of Dayton and Grandview Medical Center. The city has requested the FBI investigate the death. That investigation was forwarded to the Justice Department for review. To date, the results of that investigation have not been released.
The forum is timely, Williams said, noting the city has seen several public rallies, prayer vigils and protests in response to the deaths of English, Dante Price, 25, who died March 1 after he was shot by two security guards in an apartment complex parking lot, and Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida teen shot to death by a man claiming to be a neighborhood watch captain.
Nationally, the relationship between the police and members of the black community has been viewed by many as a relationship in need of repair.
?Blacks don?t trust the police because they were the ones that were enforcing the laws that were against us,? said Todd ?Smed? Smedley, 36, owner of the Delivery Kings and Gold 4 Ya Mouth, both Dayton businesses.
?If there is distrust in the community, it doesn?t really matter why or who is at fault. We just need to fix it,? said Officer Chris Pawelski, Dayton Police Department?s community engagement officer.
Race does come up when officers are talking among themselves, Beane said. ?A lot of times we wonder where the outrage is when dealing with black on black crime,? he said. ?We really wish that there would be an uproar.?
Ramone Hill, 28, of Dayton, agrees with Beane. ?How can we fix a relationship with police when the relationships amongst ourselves is broken?? Hill said. ?How are we going to fix the relationship with police when we are fighting amongst ourselves.?
Often times, there is a perception in the community that the police are targeting one race, Biehl said. For example, he cited there are crimes where a vague description of a suspect has been given, prompting the police to increase traffic stops in the area where the crime was committed. This results in the increase of police presence and of people questioned during the stops.
Article source: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/police-aim-to-improve-community-relationship-1356661.html
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