Trust in Police Vital, Forum Guests Say
By Jason Kuiper, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Jan. 12–The city’s problem with violence will not be solved until people feel they can trust the Omaha Police Department, several people at a forum in north Omaha said Thursday night.
A major step in building that trust, according to several of the organizers, would be to reinstate Omaha’s former public safety auditor, Tristan Bonn.
Bonn was fired Oct. 30 by Mayor Mike Fahey shortly after she released a report critical of traffic stops made by police officers. Fahey said Bonn released the report without his approval and conducted herself unprofessionally.
Sam Walker, a University of Nebraska at Omaha professor emeritus and national expert on police accountability, said in cities around the country the position of police auditor is effective.
Walker said the forum, attended by more than 50 people, was held to restore Bonn’s position because the position works. He called Bonn’s last report a dynamite report that was well documented.
“Instead of looking at the problems (in the report), they fired the auditor, shot the messenger,” Walker said. “Other cities sit down and work out the problem.”
A public that trusts its department is more likely to come forward with information about crimes being committed, he said.
The forum at the Omaha Public Schools’ Teachers Administrative Building was organized by the Omahans for Justice Alliance, which bills itself as a grass-roots group of concerned citizens, agencies and organizations. Walker and community advocates Willie Hamilton and Cheryl Weston were among the forum’s leaders.
Weston said improved dialogue between the community and police would help, as would recruiting veteran officers to work what are considered hot spots, rather than inexperienced officers.
Fahey, Police Chief Thomas Warren and Police Union President Aaron Hanson did not attend the forum.
In a letter sent to Hamilton, Warren disputed claims that Omahans for Justice made accusing the department of racial profiling, racial and ethnic discrimination in traffic stops, excessive force and other inappropriate treatment.
“I firmly disagree with the assertion that the City of Omaha is in a ‘crisis,’ and I feel that the other allegations are gross exaggerations,” Warren said, in declining an invitation to attend the forum. “I stand behind my record of reducing crime and violence and improving police-community relations in the City of Omaha.”
Warren said he has attended numerous community meetings and is working to improve the quality of life for people in north Omaha.
Omahans for Justice plans another meeting in February.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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