The national movement to make police agencies more accountable for their use of force and treatment of black people has led to moves toward change in Rhode Island.
A Senate subcommittee on June 15 approved legislation to create a community-based task force that would reexamine diversity, management and training of police, and potentially replace a 40-year-old law that governs how complaints of police misconduct are handled. The measure is expected to be considered by the full Senate.
And Attorney General Peter F. Neronha is renewing his effort to revise a state law to allow his office to expand from investigating individual cases of police misconduct to those involving patterns and practices of misconduct within departments.
What about the nationwide calls to “defund the police”? There is no local consensus.
Both the national and Rhode Island organizations of Black Lives Matter have advocated for defunding police departments, stripping them of public funds.
“You have police, but you don’t have as many,” said Mark Fisher, senior director of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island, of his vision for defunded departments.
The organization’s leaders praised the Providence police for showing restraint during recent demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
Even during the looting and vandalism that occurred overnight on June 1 in downtown Providence – which was not part of an organized demonstration – the police didn’t overreact, Fisher said. The department has a good relationship with the local community, but they still need to be reduced in size and funding, Fisher said.
“Good relationship or not,” he said.
‘You have police, but you don’t have as many.’
MARK FISHER, Black Lives Matter Rhode Island senior director
The idea is spreading across the country.
In Boston, Mayor Martin Walsh declared racism a public health crisis and has pledged to take 20% from the police overtime budget and redirect it to other community needs.
Is Providence looking at its own version of “defunding” the police?
Providence Police Chief Col. Hugh T. Clements Jr. could not be reached for an interview, nor could City Council President Sabina Matos.
But Councilman John Igliozzi, chairman of the city’s finance committee, said that he had received 2,000 emails from people asking the city to defund the police. Igliozzi has encouraged people to support a change in state law to strengthen management’s ability to fire bad officers.
Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza declined a request for an interview, but in a statement, he said his administration is “exploring reallocating resources to best respond to our community needs.
“I look forward to continuing to engage with the community and finding ways to adopt policies that address structural racism and make us a stronger, more resilient city,” he said.
Rick Simone, executive director of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, said business owners are uniformly supportive of having more officers. “They are spread too thin,” he said.
Bars and nightclubs that want to hire off-duty officers for security can’t find anyone to do it.
“If defund means lessen the amount of officers, then it has a tremendous concern to us,” Simone said. “If defund means allocate funds that would be allotted to the police department to different [training] methods, training exercises, diversity training, then of course, that’s absolutely warranted.”
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
