Orlando announces partnerships to assist with police reforms
Consultants hired to analyze operations, target racial inequalities
The Orlando Police Department will partner with two outside organizations to facilitate needed reforms at the agency and in the community, aimed at addressing systemic racism and inequity, city officials announced Wednesday.
The new contracts will bring in police consultants to analyze OPD’s current protocols and practices and identify areas for improvement, as well as academics focused on improving community engagement.
“I’m hopeful the changes and investments in OPD and the City of Orlando … further our commitment to making a change and investing [in] programs and resources to build a more equitable city,” said Mayor Buddy Dyer at a press conference Wednesday.
He said the new partnerships are part of the city’s “community trust and equity initiative,”
aimed at responding to calls in Orlando and across the nation to address systemic racism in policing and other institutions.
Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón said his agency knew there was a need to improve and build community trust even before this summer, when millions marched for change after multiple police killings of Black people struck the nation’s conscience.
“We cannot be complacent with what’s going on in our nation and we must address the areas where change is needed for our profession,” Rolón said. He said the two new partnerships, which have the support of OPD’s union, will help the agency “progressively move toward a better future.”
The city plans to bring in the police consultant organization The Bowman Group, to comprehensively review OPD, recommend reforms and help implement and monitor their success. The city expects to pay almost $800,000 for a ninemonth partnership with this group.
According to its proposal, the consultancy has worked on reviews of police agencies in New Orleans, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles and assessed standards at agencies in other major cities, like Baltimore, Chicago and Milwaukee.
“We believe that ultimately the community here will benefit,” said Theron Bowman, who will lead the project and is a former police chief for Arlington, Texas. He praised Orlando leaders being “proactive” in seeking ways to improve their police department, which he said was unusual.
His group pitched spending 250 hours on public engagement about OPD’s practices and more than 2,000 hours on a comprehensive review of the agency’s policies, training, practices and use of data, which Bowman said will include watching body-worn camera footage, analyzing use of force numbers, as well as interviewing officers and community members.
Proposed initiatives range from de-escalation training to reforming Orlando police protocols governing school resource officers.
The city also plans to partner with leaders from the Bethune- Cookman University Center for Law and Social Justice to help improve engagement and relationships between OPD and the community, specifically with the predominately Black neighborhoods Parramore and Washington Shores.
They will educate officers on the “history of law enforcement in those particular communities,” said Randy Nelson, a BCU associate professor of criminal justice who has worked nationwide training officers on community policing and engagement. “Whether it’s perception or reality, it’s their reality, and law enforcement must understand that. You can’t help people if you don’t know people.”
But Nelson said they will also work on training and educating the local community, because “accountability flows both ways.”
The city would pay BCU about $62,000 for its work. According to the university’s proposal, it would include 14 “interactive and scenario based” training sessions on topics including maintaining community trust, the community’s role in public safety and developing a “Community Action Plan‚” all tailored to those neighborhoods’ needs.
The proposal also envisioned 120 hours of “ongoing coordination and facilitation” to implement two nationally recognized programs in Parramore and Washington Shores: the Police And Clergy Together program and the Community Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence.
Contracts with The Bowman Group and BethuneCookman are scheduled to be voted on at next week’s City Council meeting, an agenda shows.
Commissioner Bakari Burns, who has pushed for OPD reforms, called the new collaborations a “logical and good next step.”
“I do think it’s important the analysis is thorough, … to ensure there’s a deep dive, a true diagnosis,” Burns said. “The real work begins when we get the recommendations.”
Adam Krudo, the president of OPD’s union, joined city leaders at the press conference Wednesday, where he said he was “optimistic” about the new initiatives, as long as they do not impact officer safety. Krudo said the union supports improvements to the agency, and many officers appreciated hearing the proposals included a more-comprehensive look at public safety.
“They recognize the community has some responsibility as well,” Krudo said. “It was refreshing to hear that.”
This summer, as demonstrators flooded downtown Orlando by the thousands to rally against police brutality, Rolón responded to activists’ calls for reform by banning the use of chokeholds and no-knock raids.
Concern around those tactics spiked this summer at primarily peaceful protests around the county following the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, who officers shot dead while executing a no-knock warrant.
Local activists have pushed for months for more concrete steps from OPD and the city’s government to address systemic racism in policing, but many have come away feeling like their demands were not taken seriously. Despite repeated calls not to increase the police department’s budget for the next year, city leaders approved a larger budget for the agency — about 2% increase from the prior year.
Dyer said OPD’s new budget, which goes into effect next week, includes funds to hire new investigators to more quickly review incidents in which officers used force as well as for a dedicated team focused on community policing.
Dyer had also said leaders planned to implement a pilot program that would send mental health professionals on certain 911 calls, a shift in responsibilities that many other cities have adopted with success. Cassandra Lafser, Dyer ’s spokeswoman, said Wednesday the pilot will be part of the work of the Bowman Group and BethuneCookman University, as the experts will help city officials determine how the new response system would operate.
While leaders admitted these new directives will far from solve systemic and institutional racism, Nelson said it’s the right first step.
“It starts with policing because policing has the authority under the guise of the law to take life and liberty,” Nelson said. “When you have that type of power and authority, damn right you have to have accountability — but it can’t stop there.”