Little Rock residents lined up Saturday in front of a microphone between long wooden pews to get a turn to ask questions of a panel of elected officials and community leaders about race relations with the police force and to make comments about recent shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Shiloh Seventh-Day Adventist Church leaders organized the panel to try to figure out what the church can do to help improve race relations in Little Rock and to prevent police-related shootings, said Camille Drackette, a young-adult leader for the church.
A Minnesota police officer shot and killed Philando Castile, 32, during a traffic stop July 6. A Baton Rouge officer shot and killed Alton Sterling, 37, the day before.
Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who lives in Little Rock, said the issue is that law enforcement agencies have fostered a culture that encourages officers to be suspicious of black people.
"The problem is how the police view and treat the citizens," Griffen said.
Panelists had differing opinions on how to remedy this problem.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said police need to get more training on cultural sensitivity and on de-escalating potentially violent situations.
Police get 40 hours of training each year and four of those must be on racial sensitivity, Stodola said.
He also said he wants to work to increase diversity on the police force.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner said in a public forum in May that the department is working to recruit nonwhite officers.
The chief is black. The rest of the department is majority-white, with a little more than 30 percent black officers.
"We are doing a better job, but we're not where we need to be," he said.
Ken Richardson, city director for Ward 2 in Little Rock, said he does not think more training will help, particularly if officers are made to attend.
"I don't know how you train sympathy and empathy," Richardson said.
His preferred method would be to re-evaluate the hiring process for officers, he said.
"If people are not culturally competent when they are hired, you should not have hired them," Griffen added.
Griffen also encouraged the use of an outside agency to investigate reports of excessive force by police rather than internal investigations.
Erma Hendrix, the city director for Ward 1 in Little Rock, said that while the short-term solution may start with changes to the Police Department, change is needed within the city government as well.
Spectators passed around a petition in support of a city ordinance that would allow new police hires only to come from within the city.
Hendrix said this would help because the new officers would be more likely to care about the city instead of working only for a paycheck.
She also said that if residents want change, they need to support the removal of the three at-large positions on the Little Rock Board of Directors because they are dominated by white people. She said legislation that might benefit the black population is often voted down because of these positions.
"We need to stop pretending that there is no racism," she said.
As the event ended, "Battle Hymn of the Republic," played on the loudspeakers and panelists and attendees stood in the church to talk about other solutions and ask more questions.
Metro on 07/24/2016