COLUMBUS (WCMH) – People in Columbus are coming together, looking or solutions on how to improve community and police relations.
The “Solutions Forum” was held at the New Birth Christian Ministries on Refugee Road. The room was full with community members and a panel of representatives from the Columbus Division of Police, Westerville Police Dept., Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, the City of Columbus and Walton + Brown Law Firm.
“Transparency is truly the key for us to be successful as far as having change,” says Regina Robinson-Easter.
She says she came tonight to help end violence and improve the relationship between people and the police.
“They talked about implicit bias. We have implicit bias. You have to recognize that you have those biases,” she says.
She’s here as a concerned community member, but she also came because of her son who’s training to be a sheriff’s deputy in California.
“The experience he had when he was racially profiled himself definitely contributed to him wanting to be the person to effect change,” she says.
She says her son’s experience is a lot like Columbus Police Sgt. James Fuqua’s, who has also dealt with a lot of prejudice in his life.
“The things that I’ve been through before I was a police officer and where I am now I have the ability to speak to both sides of the situation with the police and the community,” says Sgt. Fuqua.
He’s a diversity inclusion liaison, who explains a good police officer is someone who does their job regardless of race.
“We are working very, very hard to improve our community policing because again nationally what’s going on and more importantly locally what’s going on,” says Sgt. Fuqua. “People want accountability from the police. People need transparency. People need to know we’re doing our job and doing it correctly.”
At the end of the night, the police, the community, and even the victims’ families of police shootings came together, all working toward a solution.
“We talk about so many things but it’s about actually being engaged and trying to make a change,” says Robinson-Easter.
Columbus Police are encouraging anyone who’s interested to do a ride-alone with an officer.
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