Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer co-moderated a peer-to-peer discussion at the White House today regarding President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Created last December in the aftermath of the Ferguson Unrest following the fatal shooting of Michel Brown by a police officer, President Obama’s Task Force aimed to strengthen relationships between local police and their communities. Its final report was released in May (which you can read here). The overall recommendation of the task force’s report is for the President to create a National Crime and Justice Task Force to review and reform all components of the criminal justice system.
Fischer, in addition to Gary, Indiana Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and New Orleans, Louisiana Deputy Mayor Judy Reese led discussion on many topics, including how law enforcement interacts with residents, mental health challenges, and new technologies and data available to police forces. Their discussions addressed the challenges facing their individual communities while providing insight on how the task force’s report items are being implemented. Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad was also in attendance.
“This is a great opportunity for all of us to listen and learn about improvements in law enforcement taking place around the country,” Fischer said in a press release. “It’s also a chance for us to share some of Louisville’s work including the implementation of body cameras, Youth Chats with LMPD officers and our Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods’ work with the My Brother’s Keeper Challenge. It is an honor to co-moderate this discussion.”
Louisville Metro Police Officers began a trial period in the Fifth Division of wearing body cameras last June, with the potential for the program to expand to other Divisions by the end of the year. Louisville also is amongst the first city in the country to put its police arrest data as part of its Open City Data Policy (which can be found here).
Photo Courtesy of @louisvillemayor's twitter account.
