COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Columbus City Council’s ideas for police reform could be in place soon.

Council has been  holding hearings and discussions for the last month about what it has been calling re-imagining public safety, discussions that started after George Floyd’s death in March and the demonstrations across the country, including the capital city, since then.

Now council is set to vote on these police reform proposals Monday night.

Council first announced the four areas they wanted to see change in late last month.

Since then, Council has held about 20 hours of public hearings, gotten about 1,000 letters from the public and actually heard from about 100 residents during the virtual hearings, all leading up to Monday’s vote.

The four areas Council has been focusing on are no-knock warrants, background checks for police to include ties to hate groups, demilitarization of the police, and independent investigations of the police.

“We knew this was the beginning of our re-imagining public safety,” said Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin.

For weeks, there have been a lot of conversations, and now, there is a better idea of what Council will be voting on as the proposals make the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

The proposed legislation calls for more requirements for police to conduct a no-knock warrant – the proposal does not ban them.

Another ordinance would call on voters to decide if the city charter should be changed to allow for a civilian review board. The ordinance calls for the issue to be put on the November ballot. 

A third proposal would require police to have a policy that does not allow officers to be allowed to serve if they are affiliated with any hate groups.

A proposal for the demilitarization of the police department is not on Monday’s agenda, but Hardin said it will be introduced at the meeting. According to Hardin, it is based on former President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Report and includes types of weaponry council does not think police need. 

Hardin said Council has been working on the proposals, so it’s likely they will be approved Monday.

“We are all changed by what we saw come through our communities six weeks ago,” he said. “We are all changed because we saw George Floyd take a knee to his neck. We’re all changed because we listened to black and brown folks who have said the way policing is done today is not making them feel safe.”

These proposals have been put together over the last four to five weeks.

“There are some people who would say you are moving too fast and this is too much,” Hardin said. “And then there are a lot of folks saying you’re not moving nearly fast enough. What we put forward was a package we believe we could get done.”

“We need to be smart in terms of trying to legislate our way out of racism,” said Dr. Chenelle Jones, a member of the city’s Safety Advisory Commission. “That is gonna take a cultural shift in the minds of everybody.”

Jones helped organize the Black Excellence March, Ladies Edition last month.

“This is definitely change,” she said about the proposals. “I don’t think this would have happened if we would not have had the marches and the protests and the demonstration and the collective action.”

Jones said she is optimistic about the proposals, but more work still needs to be done.

Hardin said more work will be done, but Council wanted this vote before it recesses until September.

“We are definitely heading in that direction but the issue is so broad and so massive that there’s still so much work to do,” Jones said.

“Thinking about the role that 400 years of structural racism has played in our community, but these issues didn’t come up overnight and they all won’t be solved overnight, but we need to keep the energy,” Hardin said.

Hardin believes the proposals will likely be approved based on the amount of time and collaboration that have gone into them.

The virtual meeting will begin at 5 p.m. Monday and can be viewed on city council’s Facebook page.