Body cameras, mental health and diversity outreach focal points in Rome police's draft reform plan
Observer-DispatchFeb 10, 2021
A committee has released the first draft of proposed reforms for the
The city of Rome’s
Recommended actions from the 14-member committee made up of police, local religious and business leaders and other community members include introducing body-worn cameras, further work on crisis intervention and increasing diversity in recruitment — specifically among Spanish-speaking individuals.
“It’s almost like that draft is kind of a live document,” he said.
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While state police have been required to use body worn cameras since this past summer and the
The draft proposal states the city’s committee found body-worn cameras to be a “win-win” situation for city residents and police.
“Not only does that build trust in the community, but you can use it to build trust in a police officer and prevent complaints or false accusations,” Beach said.
The draft proposal states
The draft proposal also stated both diversity and mental training should be furthered in the department.
According to the draft plan,
The draft plan states department-wide mental health training has been scheduled, with further plans to have a “co-response of
Beach said it is hoped an MCAT staffer eventually may be able to be stationed in the
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The city also is still working to recruit Spanish-speaking police officers, he said.
“We have a growing Hispanic population in the city of Rome,” Beach said. “And unfortunately, we lack officers who speak Spanish.”
The draft plan said interpreter services have been available, and officers previously have taken Spanish class and may use
Beach said the department also is reaching out to Latino community leaders and groups such as
“It’s tough recruiting quality individuals who want to be police officers, that’s trending down overall,” he said.
Past complaints
The draft proposal also brought up two past incidents involving the
In
Beach said that command staff was spoken to about the grievance.
“We don’t have quotas, we’ve never had quotas, and it’s not appropriate to make an officer feel they have a quota,” he said staff were told.
The committee also discussed behavior from
The draft proposal states candidates for the department must provide access to all their social media. It will be the first time the department has updated its social media policy since 2013, Beach said.
Beach said the document references demonstrations that were held over an officer’s posts on Facebook, but declined to elaborate on what he said was an internal investigation.
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