Black police chiefs from across the state converged on the State Capitol calling for change in law enforcement and support to make it happen.
“This is a unique group that has well over 250 years of law enforcement experiences and double that in life experience of being Black men and women.
“Police chiefs should be provided the latitude in statute to summarily terminate an officer for an egregious use of excessive force that violates policy or meets the elements of criminal statute.
“With the killing of George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd really, and all the other killings that have happened over time, this was just the tipping point and while I’m sad and I have a range of emotions as a Black and Latina woman who also wears this uniform, it’s a hard balance to hold a lot of times, because I feel what my community is feeling, yet I know what I can do in terms of making change within the department that I’m leading at this point.
Four of Chief French’s officers are currently being sued for false arrest and claims they falsified police reports by an African American man following an incident that, like Floyd’s death, was widely circulated on social media and TMZ.
