A consultant tasked with analyzing Columbus Police Department promised transparency during his first public appearance since his hire last Tuesday.
At a press conference held Friday at CPD headquarters, K.B. Turner said he also plans to help build better relations between the police department and the community.
“A police department is only as effective as the community it serves,” Turner said. “So we have to make sure that we engage the community and give them a chance to have a voice in their department. The department exists for the citizens and they should have some input in what happens with the Columbus Police Department.”
Turner, a Columbus native, works as a chairman for the University of Memphis Criminology and Criminal Justice Department. The Columbus City Council voted unanimously to hire him at its meeting last Tuesday per Mayor Robert Smith’s recommendation. The city agreed to pay Turner’s firm, Turners Enterprises, $19,000 for a six-month contract.
“We all know that we have a crime problem here in the city of Columbus,” Smith said after the press conference. “It has increased over the last couple of years, but we want the citizens to be aware as to what we are doing by bringing in a consultant, and I appreciate the council…accepting my recommendation bringing Turners Enterprises in as a consultant.”
Turner, on Friday, promised to hold “traveling community public safety meetings” in each ward in the city to talk with citizens and hear their concerns. He also promised to keep the media apprised of his findings.
“(The citizens) deserve to know what’s going on,” he said. “They are the public. That’s why the police department exists.”
Background
Smith previously said Turner was hired partly in response to Police Chief Oscar Lewis’ public comment blaming biblical prophecy for rising crime in the city.
“Prophecy is being fulfilled,” Lewis said at a press conference earlier this month. “…The end times are here, and things are going to get pretty bad. We’re doing everything that we can to try to combat these things. There are things we can control and things we can’t control.”
Lewis attended Friday’s press conference but offered no comments.
The department is also struggling with a severe manpower shortage, fielding only 51 officers for its budgeted roster of 67. CPD hit a low of 44 late last year before the city council approved a sweeping pay raise plan for all ranks through captain.
Turner said there was no one issue that brought him to the department, and that it is too early to say for sure what all needs improving. But he added the department needs to get better about recruiting and retaining officers.
He said he would also work with CPD to standardize crime data and other data the department tracks.
Turner talked about factors that affect crime across the nation — the economy, poverty, personal responsibility and the ability of citizens to get meaningful employment — and said he would work with city officials to improve those in Columbus.
“I know sometimes it looks doom and gloom, but I don’t share in that sentiment,” Turner said. “I see this as an opportunity for the city, for the community, for the department, to reevaluate and let’s see if we can come up with some viable strategies to move the department forward.”
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