The Phoenix Human Relations Commission addressed new ways to inform the public regarding concerns about police force in the City of Phoenix, as well as a new lack of resource officers within school districts, and a need for community involvement during a virtual meeting on Monday.
The HRC, a commission designed solely to address human relation issues, bases its mission around being able to, "promote respect and understanding among all groups by eliminating discrimination throughout the City of Phoenix."
To achieve its mission, the commission has focused on making improvements surrounding different types of discrimination seen within the City of Phoenix. New changes have been achieved, including enabling people to use the restroom of their choice and getting the City of Phoenix to remove conviction questions from the first screening of job applications with the city, giving more job opportunities for individuals with prior arrests.
As for future plans, Chairman Michael Williams said they're working to build relationships with the broader community.
"We just put out our strategic plan that we're working on and it's something that we've been working on for some time. One of the things is if the city is doing what it can to get rid of discrimination. We developed a relationship with the police, and we get a readout on everything that happens, but we're trying to get an open and transparent relationship with the city and all the departments and get people to come talk to us," Williams said.
The commission plans to focus on getting more involvement from the community in order to get an understanding of what it is the city needs more of in regard to improvement on issues of discrimination.
"As a commission, we're working to sort of take our meetings on the road so that we can get into the communities and have the community tell us what it is they want and work it that way because you have to get these things somehow," Williams said.
The HRC also addressed concerns about police force against protestors and individuals during an arrest, as protests continue within the city. According to Christina Gonzales, Commander from the Community Engagement Bureau of the City of Phoenix Police Department and a Department Representative for the HRC, the police department is currently working on a use of force data dashboard.
"It's going to provide a number of incidents and it's going to break it down by area, race, gender, age, resistance level, weapon use, all that stuff, " Gonzales said.
While it's still in the works, the department hopes to have the data available for public viewing within the next few months.
As schools start back up, resources are being given to them, one of which being school resource officers. While 54 officers will be ending up in schools across the Valley, some schools have decided to opt-out of their agreement this year. Phoenix Union High School District and Phoenix Elementary District are two that have refused the choice to have resource officers back on campus.
"There are a lot of stories that we could tell but the parents and the community made some decisions that they would rather spend the money somewhere else and try other techniques for dealing with their students," Commissioner Debora Colbert said.
