Amid calls for reforming and even defunding of local police departments, several prominent figures in the Oak Park and River Forest area gave their opinions on how to potentially re-imagine public safety.
The League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River Forest hosted a virtual forum Sept. 16 to discuss the re-imagination of policing through constructive community solutions. Taking part in the forum were Oak Park police Chief LaDon Reynolds, leaders of local non-profits and community members.
During the hour-long discussion, Reynolds was asked what he envisioned for the future of community safety.
“It’s really a collaborative process,” Reynolds said. “You police through the collective conscience of the community and within the laws, best practices, policies and procedures that are appropriate. I understand the national conversations. When I take this uniform off, I am an African American male who is 49 years old and I grew up in this county. I have experienced, firsthand, a lot of the issues we’re confronting here.”
While in an unmarked squad car years ago, Reynolds said he was pulled over and “treated wrong” by police officers. It is his own experiences, combined with citizen engagement, that he hopes will guide future policing initiatives.
In addition to the community’s pledge to review its department, Reynolds noted the Oak Park police have adopted the “10 shared principles” developed by the NAACP and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police in 2018. They outline shared beliefs about relationships between officers and the communities they serve.
“Some agencies are willingly going, while others are going kicking and screaming because the culture of the organization hasn’t caught up with the national conversation,” Reynolds said. “Everyone I’ve come in contact with understands where we need to be.”
Oak Park Public Library Trustee Christian Harris spoke of changes made at the library, such as the hiring of a full-time social worker and adjustments to its youth programming, as examples of programs he’d like to see more of at the community level.
“No one is advocating for defunding public safety,” Harris said. “There will always be a need for public safety officers to stop certain types of crime. What activists and the youth of our community are saying is the relationship between police and the community is broken. The institution of policing has not historically, or today, kept everyone safe, and we need to defund and rebuild a system that works better.”
Harris cited the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago as an example of how he would like to see taxpayer dollars redistributed, saying local money should be used to fund local non-profits and loans for residents or small businesses.
“Englewood spends money on policing every year,” Harris said. “That money is money that is taken out of the community because those officers do not live in that community. If that money stayed in the community, how different would that community look?”
Harris also spoke of the Rayshard Brooks killing by police in Atlanta as an example for how public safety should be reimagined.
“Down in Atlanta, a man was [asleep] in his car, police were called and he ended up dead,” Harris said. “In my ideal world, a tow truck and social service agent would show up and assist that person. Don’t try to criminalize that person.”
Joining the call were Anita Pindiur of the Way Back Inn, an addiction recovery nonprofit, and Colleen Sutkus of Sarah’s Inn, a nonprofit helping domestic violence victims. They both said they would like to partner with police to not only provide training for officers, but also help with residents facing substance abuse or domestic violence issues.
“I’d love to have more conversations with law enforcement about why certain things are in place and speak specifically to safety,” Sutkus said. “Mostly it’s to have people really understand when [a domestic violence] victim calls police and an arrest is made and they go to the state’s attorney’s office and they don’t want to testify against their perpetrator, I don’t want that officer to take it personally. I don’t want them to think ‘Well, I’m not going to bother next time.’ When we feel our help is not being wholly embraced, sometimes we can get jaded.”
Pindiur said there are times when an officer is needed to help with a client in distress, which doesn’t necessarily need to end in an arrest.
“When I can’t talk somebody down and I can’t stabilize the situation, that’s when we call police and we need a police intervention,” Pindiur said. “At that point, we understand we’re not calling a clinician in or somebody to solve this problem for us. We’re calling someone to really intervene and keep everybody else safe. We do need to learn from each other [in those situations].”
Reynolds noted most of his department’s calls are for “conflict resolution and peacekeeping,” adding his department has a partnership with Thrive Counseling Center in Oak Park, which makes up a “significant” part of the department’s discretionary budget.
During a typical year, Reynolds said his department engages in more than 66,000 “contacts” with the public, but averages just 10 to 14 citizen complaints.
Reynolds also faced questions about the militarization of police, the role of police unions, officer training measures and whether he viewed officers as “warriors or guardians.”
“I think when we identify police as warriors or guardians, we could have a tendency to silo police officers,” Reynolds said. “Police officers are your neighbors, they’re people in the PTA or they’re the man or woman you see in the grocery store. I think sometimes we do have to be warriors. We saw those two officers in California who were ambushed. Sometimes we have to be guardians, but sometimes we have to be coaches, sometimes we have to be neighbors and sometimes we have to be emergency medical staff. All police departments are staffed by human beings.”
Most of all, Reynolds said police departments needs to be held accountable in order to maintain the public’s trust.
“I think as we continue to build trust and have accountability and work to address concerns, we’ll get to where we need to be,” Reynolds said. “The power of the police officer comes from the citizens, but with that power comes responsibility. Just because you’re a sworn police officer doesn’t mean you have a proprietary ownership of the job. There’s some people who shouldn’t be police officers. Holding those individuals accountable is part of the mandate from administration.”
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @steveschering