Forum looks at police reform
Panel was hosted by Urban League, YWCA
A civil rights attorney, a local pastor, a former judge who now chairs the civilian police review board and the city's new police chief gathered Wednesday night to discuss what it will take to help repair a deeply fractured relationship between Columbus police and many residents they serve.
More than 100 viewers tuned in virtually to the nearly 90-minute conversation from the historic Lincoln Theater via 10TV'S Youtube channel for what was the first of three panel discussions across the U.S. sponsored by the National Urban League about the topic of community and police relations. WBNS-10TV'S Andrew Kinsey moderated the event, which was cohosted by the Columbus Urban League and YWCA Columbus.
The event took place as the U.S. Department of Justice begins a review of policies and procedures of the Columbus Division of Police that is to include racial bias, but which some members of the Black community feel glosses over the division's past actions, including several recent killings by law enforcement.
Despite some clear lingering tension and resentment, the community leaders who participated in the forum expressed — to varying degrees — an optimism that healing is possible.
Stephanie Hightower, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, said it was her belief that the city could be an example of how police and community members can re-establish trust that was long ago broken.
"Rebuilding confidence and trust between law enforcement and the community it serves requires a collective realignment. We need to change the way we think, not just the way we act," Hightower said at the beginning of the forum. "Our community could become a leader in achieving constructive, enduring change for the good."
The event also included a pre-recorded discussion between Jerika Richardson, a senior vice president with the National Urban League, and Cedric Alexander, a former chief operating officer for public safety in Dekalb County, Georgia, and former acting Rochester, New York, police chief who served on an Obamaera task force on 21st Century policing.
But the bulk of the evening featured a Kinsey-moderated conversation between the four panelists that underscored the frayed relations between the city's police division and many community members that have sometimes boiled over into protests that have, at times, turned confrontational and destructive.
The panelists included Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant; Sean Walton, a local civil rights attorney who has represented families of Blacks killed by police; Victor Davis, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church on the Near East Side; and Janet Jackson, who chairs the Columbus Civilian Police Review Board and who is both a former Columbus city attorney and a former Franklin County Municipal Court judge.
As the city's first police chief hired outside of the division — as well as its first Black woman leader — Bryant was appointed by Mayor Andrew J. Ginther with the task of reforming the culture from the inside.
However, some advocates, including Walton, are concerned that little has been done to address what he said are years of injustices against the citizens of Columbus.
"It's difficult for the community to feel like they can trust law enforcement because they won't acknowledge the ways they've harmed the community," said Walton, one of the leading members
of the Columbus Police Accountability Project. "We really have to be honest about the relationship in Columbus between police and the community over the years."
Just within the past 10 months, multiple high-profile killings of Black residents by Columbus police have roiled residents, with two cases in particular igniting widespread national outcry.
In December, former Columbus police officer Adam Coy shot and killed Andre Hill, a 47-year-old unarmed Black man, inside a garage on the Northwest Side. Coy was later fired by Columbus police and awaits trial on charges of murder and reckless homicide after his attorneys' motion for a change of venue was denied in August.
Public outrage was reignited when 16year-old Ma'khia Bryant was shot and killed on April 20 by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon as the girl appeared to be trying to stab another young woman during a dispute outside a foster home on the Southeast Side where Bryant and her sister resided.
Such killings — coupled with the May 2020 murder of George Floyd Jr. in Minneapolis and other national fatal police shootings of Black people — have sparked protests that have periodically turned violent.
In April, a U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction against Columbus police prohibiting them from using tear gas and wooden bullets against non-violent protesters. The ruling came after more than two dozen protesters filed a lawsuit alleging police used excessive force during the Summer of 2020 racial justice demonstrations in the Downtown area.
More recently, Mayor Ginther announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had accepted a request from the
mayor and City Attorney Zach Klein to conduct a comprehensive review of the police division's training and practices with an eye on racial bias.
On Wednesday, Chief Bryant said she welcomes such scrutiny, saying that it can only boost transparency and accountability within the division.
"It's extremely important that we acknowledge there have been some issues between the police department and the community," Bryant said. "We have to address that. We cannot act like it doesn't exist and we cannot act like people haven't been harmed and there's not trauma that is deeply embedded."
At a Thursday morning news conference, a group of faith leaders said they would be delivering a petition signed by more than 100 religious leaders for a "pattern and practice" investigation by DOJ, which would likely involve a consent decree.
The group of faith leaders, along with the Columbus Police Accountability Project formed by civil rights attorneys and faith and community leaders, said they don't believe a review will lead to any lasting impact and is window dressing to make it look like the city is serious about reform.
The Rev. Tim Ahrens, of First Congregational Church, said the review does not go far enough to right the wrongs of decades of mistreatment of people in minority communities.
"As a citizen of Columbus and a religious leader, it's clear to me there's patterns of systemic racism in the department which leads to practices of excessive force, biased policing and unconstitutional policing," Ahrens said.
The Rev. Jeffrey Kee, of New Faith Baptist Church of Christ, said the review is an effort by Ginther to circumvent the community's demands for a policing overhaul in Columbus and will not lead to any lasting change.
"No oversight means no change. No change means no accountability and no accountability means no deal for our city," Kee said. "We need an overhaul. We don't need anything in theory in terms of a review. We need something in reality that is going to change this city for the betterment of all citizens. We're tired of procedures and processes that contribute to a process but not progress."
Ginther's office reiterated Thursday that should litigation or a consent decree become necessary, the city would cooperate and support those efforts — something the city had said in its initial invitation to the DOJ in April to review the division. When asked about whether a consent decree would happen in Columbus with the DOJ accepting the invitation, Ginther said last week he didn't think it would.
"We're building momentum behind meaningful policing reform," Ginther' said in a prepared statement Thursday. "We invited the U.S. Department of Justice to review our reform efforts and assess the operations of CPD, including conducting a pattern or practice investigation if they deem necessary. We welcome the DOJ engagement and will work with the DOJ in whatever capacity they choose, but our first focus will be about delivering results and bringing about real change and reform.”
The panelists on Wednesday night recognized some reform efforts are already in the works.
That includes establishment of a Civilian Police Review Board approved by voters and finalized in mid-july, as well as the the so-named "Andre's Law" passed in February mandating Columbus police officers use body cameras during any enforcement action and render medical aid if someone is harmed on a call for service.
The city is also testing a 911 pilot program that allows social workers to respond to some non-threatening calls following a city-funded study that found a majority of residents who responded to a survey favored a system that allowed police to handle fewer emergency calls.
There's also the city's ongoing "Reimagining Public Safety" initiative that has seen a multitude of programs passed in the last year aimed at violence intervention and youth empowerment grants.
Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this story.
Eric Lagatta is a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch covering public safety, breaking news and social justice issues. Reach him at elagatta@dispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ericlagatta