Meaningful Change for Cleveland Heights Policing
Cleveland Heights Protest for Peace, June 2020, photo credit Roger Glenn Hill Cleveland.com
With the conviction of police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, many people breathed a sigh of relief — justice for one family — though the cost was too high and the trauma can’t be undone for people of color across our country and community.
Following Floyd’s death, Cleveland Heights city council members, led by Davida Russell, Melody Hart, and Mike Unger, passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis and in an effort to turn thoughts and prayers into action, the trio also introduced legislation to develop a 25-person resident committee to be organized around the mission of advancing racial equity in the areas of law enforcement, housing, education, and business practices — the Cleveland Heights Racial Justice Task Force.
Beginning on April 13, the Police Department launched a series of town hall meetings, working with Cleveland State University’s Division of Equity and Multicultural Inclusion to review police department policies. These policies are available for review and will be the topics of a series of Community Virtual Town Hall meetings.
Click here to view details about the next meeting and policies being reviewed.
During the first Town Hall meeting, Chief of Police Annette Mecklenburg and Dr. Ron Dunn, Chief Diversity Officer of the Urban Affairs Department, led a discussion related to the police department’s Recruitment and Hiring policy and the Vehicle Pursuit policy. Participating residents offered excellent questions and comments throughout the process, which were recorded and are now being reviewed and integrated into policy change recommendations. The results of these town hall discussions will also be passed on to the city's Racial Equity task force chair Rhonda Davis Lovejoy for review by the task force.
Below are the links to the policies reviewed on April 13.
The next meeting will take place on April 27th at 6:30 p.m. If you’d like to have input or learn more about the issues being discussed, use this link to register for the upcoming Town Hall. there will be another meeting to discuss the Biased-Based Policing policy and the Use of Force policy. I hope residents will try to attend this meeting. Here are the links for the policies being reviewed during the next meeting:
Bias-Based Policing