Leaders, activist debate Orlando’s path to justice

Following weeks of unrest after George Floyd’s death in late May, Orlando leaders have expressed their willingness to discuss the need for police reform, while local activists have vented frustration with a lack of progress toward concrete change.

A virtual forum held Tuesday — dubbed “Orange County Social Justice Virtual Forum: Where Do We Go From Here?” — arrived in roughly the same place, with local government and law-enforcement leaders agreeing to continue the dialogue, though few specific solutions were proposed.

The forum was hosted by the Orange County Bar Association Foundation, The Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida and Florida Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Moderated by WESH-Channel 2 news anchor Stewart Moore, it featured Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and police Chief Orlando Rolón, Orange Mayor Jerry Demings and Sheriff John Mina, State Rep. Geraldine Thompson and community organizer Miles Mulrain Jr.

Participants discussed several topics that have drawn public attention in recent months, including the over-policing of Black and brown communities, the overaggressive enforcement of low-level crimes and calls to defund police departments to allocate resources to underserved neighborhoods.

Thompson said she planned to propose legislation that would create a database of officers with a history of using excessive force and identify “hot spots” where a review of departmental policies are needed.

Thompson said successful reform would also revisit qualified immunity, require officers receive implicit bias training, implement diverse hiring practices in police forces and address the school-to-prison pipeline.

Among the changes activists said they would like to see implemented are reallocating funds from policing agencies to Black communities, embedding civilian social workers among officers and giving Orlando’s Citizens’ Police Review board the authority to subpoena and discipline officers.

A significant portion of the panel was devoted to the topic of defunding the police. Some local leaders bristled at the idea, calling it impractical and saying it failed to address the systemic causes of crime.

“The phrase ‘defunding the police’ means different things to different people … I don’t even use that term. I think what we need to be talking about is prioritizing things,” Dyer said, mentioning police training as a priority.

Rolón said “in an ideal world,” having a social worker respond to certain calls to deescalate the situation “would be the perfect fit.” But many calls for service that might seem ideal, like domestic issues, can lead