RACINE — The City of Racine becomes the first city in the area to implement police reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the national protests. Racine Mayor Cory Mason put into place several reforms for the Racine Police Department.
They include:
- Signing President Barack Obama’s challenge to mayors across the country to review police use of force policies, engage city residents to seek their input and learn from their experiences, report out findings within 90 days, and reform of use of force policies based on those findings
- Requiring all members of the Racine Police Department to go through implicit bias training
- Directing the Racine Police Department to put all police department policies online and make them accessible to the public
- Creating a new City website dedicated to reform in local policing
- Hiring a new Human Resources Generalist to focus specifically on public safety employees
- Directing the Affirmative Action and Human Rights Commission to work with the City’s HR Department and the Police Department to develop and publicly report on a strategy and timeline for increasing the number of our police officers who are people of color and city residents so that our police force more clearly reflects our community's diversity
- Directing the City to submit an application to join GARE, the Government Alliance on Race & Equity
“We took it very seriously, so we really wanted to put a task force together and make some reforms right away,” said Mason.
Some of the changes come after a call by former President Barack Obama asking mayors to review police use of force, get input from city residents about their experience with officers and then make reforms moving forward, all within 90 days.
So, Mason put together a Task Force on Police Reform which includes Racine County Supervisor Fabi Maldonado who says he is ready to act fast.
“If you live in the City of Racine we have been facing these injustices for a long time, specifically the black community,” said Maldonado.
The plan is to start getting community input right away and have the reforms ready to be implemented by the fall.
“We are ready for this change. We are ready for the reform,” said Maldonado.
“The goal ultimately is you want the community to have full public trust in the police force,” said Mason.
An online meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. June 11th. For virtual access to the meeting call: 1-844-992-4726, access code: 132 265 3102.
A Common Council Meeting will follow starting at 7 p.m. For virtual access you may view the meeting Facebook live at http://www.facebook.com/CityOfRacineWI/ or via phone at 1-844-992-4726, access code: 132 718 9027.
