Sekou Franklin is with the Community Oversight Now coalition. He listened this week as Mayor David Briley announced plans for The Policing Project the same day the video showing Daniel Hambrick's final moments was made public.
"Smacks a real deep racial paternalism and I think it's going to lead to a deep level of cynicism just because I think its designed to counter the community oversight board," Franklin explained.
However, Briley said that's not the case, rather The Policing Project will help city officials look at data about how Metro is currently policing while coming up with better strategies for keeping our communities safe. Briley hopes it will help lead to rebuilding that bridge of trust between officers and the communities that are being policed.
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When it comes to the oversight board, he admits he’d like to see it done through an ordinance or an executive order.
Right now the signatures on the petition to get the oversight board on the ballot for November are being verified as communities struggle with the most recent officer involved shooting.
"I certainly understand why there would be issues and concern and impatience in that context and we're going to work as hard as we can to do the community oversight board, to get the policing project completed and to get body cams on all of our officers," said Briley.
