by Tony Ganzer, ideastream
Today we revisit the occasional series on community policing in Cleveland, . Over the course of this series we鈥檝e brought you many diverse perspectives on what community policing should look like, and how far some Clevelanders think we are from an ideal. While there are many perspectives, there are also common themes:
On a recent Saturday, at Cleveland鈥檚 Broadway Boys and Girls Club, Northeast Ohio police, fire, and Cleveland Clinic workers set up shop in a basketball gym. It was the latest in a string of 鈥榤eet the safety forces鈥� events held at different spots in our region, maybe a gym this week, at a restaurant another. They鈥檙e meant for the public to meet not just police, but various rescue workers. Kids could learn about CPR, see a K-9 unit, or practice dialing 9-1-1鈥nd grab a slice of pizza.
Rashonda Jackson is a Cleveland police dispatcher. She said she鈥檚 been coming to events like this for more than 10 years, with many in the summer. Today there weren鈥檛 that many community members who visited on a chilly March day. I asked Jackson why she thought that was:
JACKSON: 鈥淚n today鈥檚 time, you know, people are a little reluctant. You know, and in these times people鈥檚 mentalities are different.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淵ou鈥檝e done it 10 years, can you talk about how things have changed, especially in the last few years since there have been so many high-profile cases that are really--鈥�
JACKSON: 鈥淵es, I believe the trust has gone down between the community and safety forces. I believe people don鈥檛 trust anymore. Why? Because they take one incident, and they turn it into, and they categorize it in to one. There are police officers, and fire fighters, and every鈥攖hey do great things all the time. And these are things the news don鈥檛 report. You know media has a lot to do with it. Because people are so into television, they take television as 鈥榯he word鈥� and it鈥檚 not. You have to get out and find out for yourself how it really is. One incident doesn鈥檛 categorize the whole department.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淎fter so many years of coming to these things, do you think there are things people don鈥檛 know or they don鈥檛 hear about? I mean, I saw such a wonderful interaction, you had tons of kids here just practicing 9-1-1.鈥�
JACKSON: 鈥淚 think it starts with the children, because they don鈥檛 know as much as adults and they鈥檙e trying to learn, they want to learn, they鈥檙e inquisitive, they want to know what鈥檚 going on. And I feel as a parent, you should bring your children and educate them any way you can, because you never know, they may need safety forces at some point. We hope that they don鈥檛. Because when people call for 9-1-1 they鈥檙e not happy, you know, they鈥檙e in distress. So the children need to know that, and I think they should bring their children out.鈥�
That was Rashonda Jackson, a Cleveland police dispatcher.
Her 9-1-1 training was one of a number of stations set up at the event. Terrance Richardson works in community outreach for the Cleveland Clinic. She said this kind of event with agencies from many Northeast Ohio communities, is meant to show police officers are human鈥nd everyone needs to work together for the betterment of the community.
RICHARDSON: 鈥溾�nd so far, so good, the community鈥檚 responding really well. We have pastors of churches who are calling us to say, 鈥榳e鈥檇 like to partner with you鈥� and so the goal is just to bring as many community partners together and have events that promote a positive outcome.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淥ne thing you mentioned was there weren鈥檛 as many people as you would鈥檝e liked here. What鈥檚 the hardest part in just getting folks to come in and know it is a non-threatening environment?鈥�
RICHARDSON: 鈥淵ou know, that鈥檚 just the nature of the beast when you do community work. Sometimes you have a ton of people, and sometimes not so much. But we will continue to promote them, we continue to move to different communities, and to get people on board. Like I said, each one is different, so we just continue to do them and bring services to the community, and let people know the resources that are available to them, and that is how we will win them over.鈥�
Events like these are meant to work toward improving community-police relations, which is also a big part of the consent decree with Cleveland and the Department of Justice on police reforms.
The focus for some in the community is not yet solely on repairing the relationship, rather still on mourning. Later that Saturday, after the police event at the Boys and Girls Club, dozens of people held a vigil on Cleveland鈥檚 East side for . Jones, an African-American, was shot by police a year ago, after breaking into a store.
The death is still under investigation.
