Guess who

Appointments to the City's Police-Community Relations Committee have been deferred for one month. According to Councilman Clyde Gulley, the deferral was needed to look at the makeup of the committee again and to potentially include some people who were left out.

Interesting, like who?

I will admit, I was surprised that Pastor Burnett's name was not on the list. Just from reading this blog, you can get an idea of how involved he has been in trying to work with the City and PPD to stop crime.

Just saying.

See current appointee's Volunteer Profiles here.

Low key mediation, yields results

For the past 18 months, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (“DOJ”) has been meeting with Police Chief Settingsgaard, NAACP President Donald Jackson, unnamed community representatives and city officials. The group has under gone DOJ mediation, which was originally borne out of NAACP complaints alleging police brutality and racial profiling.

The result of the mediation, was the recent approval given by the NAACP to the Peoria Police to do racial profiling in "hot spots" and the rebirth of the Police-Community Relations Commission.

The Commission’s newly appointed members are:
Steve Settingsgaard, Peoria Police Chief
Don Jackson, NAACP
Savino Sierra, first district
Sharon Draper, second district
Douglas Lindstrom, third district
Erica Baird, fourth district
Howard Williamson, fifth district
Larry Ivory, at-large representative
Agbara James Bryson, at-large representative
Whitney Lawson, under-25 age group representative
George Azouri, under-25 age group representative
Scott Moore, City Manager
Eric Turner, at-large council member
Sgt. Greg Collins, District 150 representative
Bill Ordaz

In January of this year, the City of Peoria donated property located at 101 N. MacArthur Highway, to the NAACP, Peoria Branch, which has helped the NAACP establish a much needed presence in the community. Prior to that, NAACP work was handled out of NAACP, President, Donald Jackson's law office, which is located at 456 Fulton Street.

Beginning in January, 2011, the DOJ will conduct workshops on racial profiling and cultural competency, specifically designed for the Peoria Police. The workshops will be led by the Civil Rights Division, which is the same division that mediated the talks that led to re-establishing the Police-Community Relations Commission.