Editor’s Note: This article is now complete.
This one should be a quick one, folks. We’ll stick around for the work session because that will be the interesting part.
The business session is just a vote to vacate an alley for an apartment building project and then a vote to establish procedure rules. We’ll then move into a work session with Police Chief Philip Broadfoot will talk about police/community relations. Here’s part of City Manager Joe King’s letter about it…
Considerable academic research and our own experience reveal substantial differences in the way blacks and whites view and interact with the police. Consequently, those in cities like Danville with large minority populations and disproportionately white police forces are also looking for ways to overcome barriers to building good community relationships.
We’re underway.
The alleyway is done and we move along to the rules discussion. Buddy Rawley says he will vote against it. Gary Miller says people have used the public comment session as a soapbox. Who? It passes 8-1. And we’re in the around the horn session.
Multiple council members mention conserving electricity.
We’re moving to the work session and Police Chief Philip Broadfoot’s presentation.
Full house at the work session.
Finance Director Michael Adkins goes over the financial reports.
Chief Broadfoot is ready for his presentation.
Joe King gives the introduction. Sherman Saunders thanks the media. He forgets about me. Alonzo Jones fixes that. Heh.
Broadfoot says professionalism is the key. Determine when it is appropriate to demand compliance.
Police officers can only do the job when they are judged as legitimate by the public. “We tell our officers to make sure you leave a situation at least as good as when you arrived.” meaning don’t make things worse. “An officer can act in a professional manner and still draw an outcry from the public.”
Broadfoot says newspaper and job fair job advertisements don’t guarantee good officers. The best recruits come from veteran officers’ referrals.
Gary Miller asks what the police department can do to recruit more black officers. Broadfoot says referrals from existing officers remains the best. Alonzo Jones questions the number of people that fail the testing process. The police department had 4408 applications in the last eight years, only 678 of them replied to a follow-up letter. 517 passed the reading and physical fitness test. 90 passed the background tests and were hired. The background include credit checks and unannounced home visits. “We look for lies in the process. We find them and we reject the candidate.”
He says they use media reports of other departments and use them to train our officers on what not to do. Broadfoot says that Danville is ahead of all nearby departments in equipment and salary, but not in facilities. Average tenure of a Danville police officer is 5 to 6 years. Some officers leave DPD to go to a less-busy department. Family approval is required and a formal induction is required. In the academy process, recruits have three chances to score 100% on every test or they’re out.
GPS systems track police cars and supervisors are notified if the car remains parked or travels over 80mph. Approximately five Danville officers have been fired for lying or not being forthcoming in the last five years.
Officers get 16 hours of training on working with the mentally ill. All officers are now getting 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training to help. Broadfoot says if someone’s life is in danger, the question of mental illness goes out the window. Increasing firearm training leads to less firearms use, as officers become more confident in their use.
After a recess, we hear from Economic Development. Meredith Gravely Dance Studio has purchased the old Web Parts building for $175K. Telvista’s 300 job expansion for their new client (Verizon) will require subdividing their building into a separate area for the employees taking the calls for Verizon.
And we’re done. I really don’t see a need for a BreakDown article on this meeting since so little happened. We’ll try and get Chief Broadfoot’s presentation for you to read it. We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!
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