A call for ‘radically different’ policing

Faith leaders, activists demand changes from leaders, law enforcement

Orlando-area faith leaders and activists called for local law enforcement agencies to change their approach to public safety Wednesday, citing data reflecting racial disparities in policing as well as the stories of residents who said they’ve been subjected to unnecessary force.

In a virtual press conference Wednesday afternoon, Rev. Sheena Rolle, a deputy director for Faith in Florida, called policing in Central Florida “a problem” and demanded that local leaders, including Orange Sheriff John Mina, who is up for reelection, “create a radically different system that will truly protect and serve.”

Samuel Sinyangwe, the cofounder of national organization Campaign Zero that works to eliminate police violence, presented his analysis of arrest data from the Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department, finding that Black people were disproportionately arrested for low-level and drug crimes.

In 2018, he found that Black people accounted for 45% of those arrested by the Sheriff ’s Office on drug offenses, despite making up about a quarter of the county’s population.

In Orlando, Black residents made up less than a quarter of the population, but about two-thirds of drug arrests that year, he found.

Sinyangwe shared his analysis with the Orlando Sentinel, which was based in part on public data reported by the agencies to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The data showed violent crimes accounted for less than 10% of each agency’s total arrests, which

he said underscored that law enforcement officers often are responding to mental health, addiction or homelessness issues that reform advocates argue could be better handled by social services.

Sinyangwe noted other U.S. cities faced with similar data, like Eugene, Ore., and San Francisco, have shifted the responsibility for such calls away from police to mental health or community-based groups.

Officials in St. Petersburg recently announced that some nonviolent calls, including those involving intoxicated, homeless, suicidal or mentally ill people, neighborly disputes or truant children, will be handled by social workers rather than police starting in October.

“You don’t need someone with a gun to respond to that issue,” Sinyangwe said, of mental health crises.

He also noted data from website Mapping Police Violence, that found Orlando had the fourth-highest rate of police killings in the country.

“It is one of the deadliest cities when it comes to police violence,” Sinyangwe said. “All of these statistics and patterns, we are seeing happen under John Mina.”

Mina served as chief at OPD in 2018, the time frame primarily covered by Sinyangwe’s analysis. Mina did not immediately respond to questions from the Sentinel about the data or the press conference.

An OPD spokesperson did not respond to questions about the data, but sent links to data available on the city’s website, which formed the basis for some of Sinyangwe’s analysis.

The city at a recent budget workshop unveiled a planned pilot program that would send a social worker, counselor or therapist along with OPD officers responding to people who are in mental health crises. If approved, the test would begin in the upcoming fiscal year.

Mina has said he hoped to propose a similar program for the OCSO, but budget constraints following the economic downturn from COVID-19 stymied that idea for his agency this year.

“The norm must be dismantled,” said Rev. Rhonda Thomas, the executive director of Faith in Florida. “We have a responsibility to really look at who serves in these positions and if they’re not serving the community equally, … remind them and hold them accountable.”

The press conference also featured residents and activists who described troubling interactions with Orlando-area law enforcement.

“I was arrested for walking while Black,” said Maxwell Frost, 23, who has helped lead local demonstrations calling for an end to police brutality, as well as recent ones calling for county leaders to reject a budget increase for the Sheriff ’s Office.

He said he was walking back to his car from a protest July 24 when Orlando police officers started arrested demonstrators. He said he tried to speak with officers about why they were making arrests when the group was leaving, but was shoved to the ground by an officer and arrested.

He was booked on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

An OPD spokeswoman in a statement last week said the protesters had blocked traffic and ignored commands to move. The Sentinel requested body camera footage of one of the arrests, but the city refused to release it, citing the still-pending criminal case against the protester.

Khadija Bezzaz, 21, also spoke Wednesday about her recent run-in with Orange Deputy Christopher Moore, who pulled her over after she stopped her car briefly near a June 3 George Floyd protest and then smashed her driver-side window when she questioned why she was being ordered to exit the vehicle.

“It was just for fun for him, there was no legal action taken against me,” Bezzaz said, adding she has a permanent scar on her lip.

“These aren’t just hearsay instances,” Rolle said, citing the Campaign Zero data. “Voting will not solve everything, but it is a sure thing we can do.”