The city of Phoenix asked for a panel’s help last year to come up with ways to improve relations between the public and police, and the latest in a series of listening sessions on the group’s effort took place Wednesday in Maryvale.
The Community and Police Trust Initiative's efforts yielded 15 recommendations for the Phoenix Police Department. Eighty percent of them have been adopted, or soon will be.
About 10 people spoke at the meeting. Several expressed anger at the suggestion that civilian volunteers should teach people, especially children, how to interact with law enforcement.
The idea may sound counter-intuitive, but it came from parents, said Jeremy Helfgot, one of the panel members.
“We’ve always taught young kids to be respectful of the police,” Helfgot said. “That the police can be trusted. But this notion [of] having to learn how to act is a relatively new phenomenon.”
Phoenix police have said three of the suggestions would require policy changes. They include requiring officers to document every time they pull a weapon and aim it at a suspect; giving investigative powers to a civilian panel to review complaints against police; and tracking demographic information on arrests, traffic stops and summonses.
Some of those policy changes need to be made, said Viri Hernandez with the Center for Neighborhood Leadership.
“There is a lack of trust between Black and Brown communities [and] the police departments,” Hernandez said. “And that means there is a lot of work that needs to be done. And it starts with admitting that some of these policies are problematic.”
The Department needs mayor and council approval to make some of the changes, said Marchelle Franklin, Phoenix’s director of Police Community Affairs.
“We want to make sure there aren’t any unintended consequences in doing what we want to do and what the community has asked us to do to increase that trust and enhance that trust,” Franklin said.
The listening sessions will continue through Aug. 1 at various locations throughout the city. There are plans for another series in the fall, according to city officials.
