You dont have to be best friends with 200,000 people. But you can develop relationships with a few key members of your sector and your precinct and your area and develop those kinds of relationships where it becomes a twoway flow of information. Information on safety and you can provide information to us on crime and what is important in your community. The days of Police Departments going into the community and telling them what their problem is i think has passed. We are now at a point where we are going to the community and the community is helping us determine what our priorities should be. Where we should be attacking crime. What the most important thing that they want addressed is. Sometimes its not even crime. To beome that focal point the guardians of the community, not the warriors. Host captain harvey powers is the director of the Training Academy in the richmond leased Department Police department. Inc. You for your time. Thank you for your time. We will be joined by dwight jones, the mayor of richmond. Well continue to take your calls. The lines will be on the screen. We will start with lila. Her sister is a Police Officer. Caller good morning. On. Sh the captain was still my sister is an officer in d. C. A lot of the comments earlier in the program puts this premise forth as if all Police Officers are levelheaded good minded individuals. A lot of what goes on like the gentle than before me said also starts at home. ,hen they go into the training the division of races can even be seen in the training class. When my sister was in class with class was very segregated by race even during the Police Academy. And then it just perpetuates itself. I have never had terrible with the police. I was raised in Montgomery County right outside of d. C. And i have been fine. But i have had many friends. I talk it to come out of the juvenile Justice System where it is absolutely horrid and a scary to think about the interactions that they have with the police. And i think that when the Police Officers and representatives put things through like one of the callers said earlier, oh just be respectful. That is like telling a lady going down the street, oh just walk down the street and if someone is a rapist and there is an opportunity they wont rape you. Know if someone has a bad heart and bad intentions it doesnt matter how respectful you are. Where does your sister serve . D. C. R in washington, she has been there for five years. Her experience has been mixed. Even with all of the police see the division of opinion in the force based on race. And it is not always black on white as far as the aggression. Some of the aggression is just aggression because they have power and they have a gun. Or individuals that are coming to serve in washington, d. C. That dont understand the culture or vernacular of the urban students or young people could sayea, someone something and they pull a gun because they think it is a threat. Whereas there is a language or cultural barrier. And someone is saying they would have run down the street and the Police Officer will interpret slang they are using as if theyre going to shoot them and so a gun is pulled. There needs to be a higher level of sensitivity across the board. And an honest acknowledgment that some Police Officers are not good. The majority of them are. But there are many of them who are just not good people and when given power and given a people, especially those of color, are put at risk. Host that is lila from washington, d. C. Our program has been devoted today to the topic of policing and community relations. We heard from the captain of training and chief of police in richmond, virginia. Joining us now is dwight jones, the mayor of that city. Thanks for joining us. Guest good morning. Host when it comes to the topic of policing, what do you think has to happen . Not only in your own city, but nationwide . Guest i think there has to be a connectivity between the policing community and the community at large. I think there has to be the ability for the police force and the community to have a relationship with each other and i think that our success relates to our emphasis on Community Policing. Host as far as the idea, what has been the message to your police chief . What do you want to see happen . Be visible. T him to i want him to be in the community. Our police chief has done that. He is very recognized. He is a force to be reckoned with in our town. The people in our community have responded to our policeman walking in the community, going into all neighborhoods, knocking on doors, allowing them to know that they are not people to be feared but people to work with to make our city healthy and robust. I think that has a lot to do with us being able to solve crimes. We are very happy to be able to report that our crime rate is down. Homicides are down. Just north of us is washington, d. C. , where crime rates are up. Baltimore. Are up in some cities have epidemic rates of crime. We have crime that is going down and i think it has a direct relationship to our emphasis on Community Policing. Host how so . Give us some examples. I think that when we have such a high rate of solved crimes, it becomes apparent to the bad actors in the community that it is not going to go unnoticed. You are not going to get away. People in the community have relationships with our police and someone is going to give us the information to close the case. I think people take that into consideration before they do some of the things that they do. Community as a result not only of Community Policing but of being intentional about all aspects of life in the community. Rate in thepoverty city of richmond. We recognize that getting people jobs and skills, improving housing and education, all of them work together. Host you have seen the events of what happened in ferguson. What happened in baltimore. What are the lessons you saw from there that you applied to richmond when it comes to Police Relations with communities of color . Guest i think that the lessons come from here. At the incidents in the other cities, i began to think about the fact that our Police Department is diverse. We have good diversity in our Police Department because we are serving a diverse community. Our political structure is diverse. I think that is important. People in the community have to have an ability to look at the leadership and see a reflection of themselves. Withve Relationships Community organizations and leaders. In some communities where there were problems, there were breakdowns in those kinds of relations that we have. The mayor of richmond, virginia joining us. The lines will be on your screen. Lets start with stephen in connecticut. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. Dynamics whatch comes to policing especially the use of force. I think an ally in the civil rights community, attorney general holder, i believe with i agree with everything he said. My daughter was rescued by a cop. And the guy was like thor. The training was excellent. How do we get better quality candidates . I have heard anecdotal evidence that it is hard to recruit quality people of color. Loretta lynch, has she talk to you guys talked to you guys . Guest i think you have to be very intentional about trying to attract good quality candidates to the Police Department. That is what we do here in the city of richmond. We do that by showing a relationship between the administration and the Police Department, making sure people know that they are not outsiders. In richmond, we are being intentional about trying to attract a more diverse police force. Louis, a retired Police Officer, david. Go ahead. Outer mayor jones, i came the Police Academy in the 70s. During the time when Community Policing was one of the concepts that were becoming a vital tool to use in order to deter crime. When i graduated, once i took my th, it was actually prevention and apprehension. T we need to get active when i became a sergeant. I used to sit back and look at my squad before i released them on the street. If the sergeants were paying close attention to anyone whose demeanor has changed, i used to pull them to the side and asked them if there is something personal going on and what we can do to resolve that. Secondly, we always went from the term cosmetic. We would park the police car in a crime area and we would walk the perimeters so that we would get to know who actually lives in the community. Who is visiting the community. Vehicles inntion to the facility that we knew lived or it was coming in transit. They have gotten away from that. What we need to get back to his tactics. Hypothetically speaking, if i come up on a call where i feel a combative suspect or he has a mental problem, once my backup man cannot there, his job was to make sure that he and i went home safe. Secondly, with all the tools we have available now, lethal force is one of the last things we should have to do. Question, asked you a an incident is i you can tell me where team policing solve something with i think i can agree what most of the caller said. I certainly recognize and appreciate his service. On of the things we do is try to highlight the importance of our Police Department and how we respect and are grateful to our policeman and women for the service that they render. They put their lives on the line every day. I think the caller was exactly right in terms of the importance of Community Policing. The importance of knowing who is going in the community and to his coming out. The importance of knowing who the bad actors are. I think thats what we are doing here in the city of richmond. Host john in florida is next. Dont hit the button on me too fast. Say, i appreciate the things you do. If you have been listening to the guests before you, you would notice all of the black people werecalled in on the show concerned about Police Brutality and the killings. Like white people like to say, we support thugs and criminality. We have seen it with our own eyes. Senseless beatings. Senseless killings. Something outt there acting crazy. Lock them up. Take them to jail. Someone is doing wrong. I am a victim of that. I am a victim of being pulled over, Police Telling me, a grown man, telling me to sit on the ground. Sit on the ground for his safety. And when i refused he put me in jail for resisting arrest. Because i do want to sit on the ground. In this manner like you are a piece of dirt. Po dont give me that crab about police it is a system. These young cats are not aware that they have to be afraid of the police. And im not being racist. America they think we are disrespectful to police. But they treat us differently and that is the truth. That is the 100 truth and you need to address that. Everybody has a difficult job. Dont be an officer if you dont want to have a difficult job. We have to recognize that there is systemic racism in policing. I grew up as a minority american and i certainly know what you are talking about. There has been a culture in the policing community that is being revealed now with new technology and social media. It is being revealed and it is not pretty in some instances. In the city of richmond where we ite 60 minority community, is just not something we can tolerate. The culture has got to change where it exists. One of the things i have done is i put 400,000 of my last budget toward body cameras so we can have objective evidence of what is going on out in the field. I think the culture is something that is changing in some other places. I think youre in the city of richmond, we are probably a little bit further along in terms of having a culture sensitive to the diversity that we deal with in a 60 diverse community. Minnesota. El in hello. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate everything that has been said. One of the things i have a major problem with is we talk about is, whereand my point is the concern from the Police Department as well as higher officials when we talk about change . Is, the only way to amenable we have to be to change. I dont see that happening. Nobody is putting no effort out to change. We dont have programs or Community Watch programs. We dont even have basketball programs. If we want to see change, we have to bring everybody to the table at once. Guest i agree with you that change requires a conference of community effort. I dont want to make richmond appeared to be some type of utopia. We have our issues and some things that are yet to be done. Some of the things you mentioned are going on here. We have a police athletically here. E we have the mayors youth academy. We have youngsters who in turn with the police. Tern with the police. Kind ofs to be the confidence in people that allow them to know that we are not just working on public safety. We are working on jobs, training, housing, transportation, trying to reduce the poverty rate, trying to so wese the tax rate o have more money for public safety. All of those things. When you look at our city and what we are trying to accomplish, our officers are out there in the community with their sleeves rolled up. They are with members of the community and i think the community is responding to that. Asks,someone on twitter if your City Government has made cuts to police and fire budgets or if cops were laid off. Guest we have not laid off any policeman. En. I came into office during the worst recession since the depression. We were able to maintain our commitment to the police. In our last budget, we were able to give policemen a raise. We were able to fund training. More equipment, body cameras. I think were finally winding ourselves out of the recession and our commitment is to make sure that our police force is made whole. We also raised the salary of incoming officers so that we are competitive with the surrounding immunities so that we dont train Police Officers here and then they leave to go to a higher paying job in our surrounding communities. We have done a good job making sure Police Officers know we are putting our money where mouth is. Host patricia in virginia. Caller thank you for taking my call. Anything i have had to do with the richmond Police Department has been very commendable. They have a hard job. They went beyond the call of duty to help me out when i needed it. I think they do an excellent job. Guest thank you very much. I will pass that on to the chief and to the men and women of the richmond Police Department. I think they do an excellent job as well. Host william in gary, indiana. Caller good afternoon, cspan. This call was actually for your police chief but i am hoping the mayor can answer it. I would like to know how proactive is your internal Affairs Division . Are they engaged in a broken window policy where they are actually working for the bad apples and not just relying on citizens complaints . Dolso would like to know, you have an internal review. Oard that looks at police that is pretty much it. I am not that deep in the weeds in terms of how internal affairs works. Hadn say that we have not in my six and a half years in office any incidents or problems that have risen to the top. You approvedones, a budget for the building of a new jail for your city, but when it came to the jail size, you made it smaller than originally asked for. Can you explain . Into office, came i was given a proposal to build a 2000 bed jail. Belief is that we ought to not build larger jails but find ways to reduce incarceration. Because the problem was that many of the people who were incarcerated had mental issues. Some of them were lowlevel drug dealers. Many of them were in jail because of a failure to pay their spousal support. That is not the place for these kinds of people. The reduction in the size of the jail we also changed the name of a jail to a justice center. To just kind of change the whole concept of incarceration. So we have a Drug Court Docket now. We have a drug court. We have a day center where persons are able to get like monitors and go to work and so forth. We have worked very hard to change the notion and the culture around incarceration with the help of our judges and our juvenile Justice System and our sheriff. Oldad a jail that was very and in terrible condition. People were dying in the jail because of heat a 60 nation. Sphyxiation. Host david in pennsylvania. Police officers take an oath to protect and serve. But when it comes to the black community, we see them as they come to intimidate and to discriminate. Andthe problem has been, there is obviously trying to paint with a broad brush. There is good cops and bad cops. But there has always been a code that the Police Protect the bad cops. And then it goes to the District Attorney and they protect the bad cops. As a few calls have mentioned, when will the day come when there will be accountability for those bad apples that are there that the Police Department knows about, that there have been incidents where people are rogue, or their way of policing is through intimidation . Mayors office and down, when will there be some type of accountability to get rid of these bad apples and dont wait until they kill somebody, but when they have done harm to the community and the police force, that they wont be protected by the mayors office, or the District Attorney . I think once we start seeing accountability for these rogue officers, you will get the respect of the community and the trust of the community. Instead of the Police Supervisors turning their heads and allowing this abuse to continue. Andant to see real change whenever there is some accountability and we see the Police Department leasing themselves, that is when you will see change in the community. When these people pulling over people and the first thing they do is grab their gun, and the first thing they want to do is shoot someone instead of trying to change the situation and being able to communicate. The Police Officers are so afraid that no matter what the situation is, theyre going to grab their gun instead of trying to police. Host thank you, david. Guest i think obviously the last year or so because of social media, a lot of attention has been brought to the fact that there are some issues. They are very deep issues and i dont disagree with much of what the caller has talked about. But i think that the upside of the social Media Attention is we are seeing this. It is no longer able to be swept under the rug. So when you have that actors, it is going to be found out now. And the message has got to come down from the mayors office, from the chiefs office, that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. And thats what we do in richmond. Inare very direct recognizing the importance of having a culture where policing by intimidation is not something that we tolerate nor is it something that we teach. You had our Training Officer on earlier on in the program. Is very specific as to what we expect of officers and we will not tolerate that. We are not in the business of covering anything up. And i am not sugar coating things because of this program. Im really saying to you that in our city we will not tolerate that. There will be no coverups here. Host rene in florida is next. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Is, they are here to protect and serve. How come when 70 runs away from shot in the get back . How come when somebody runs away from police, they get shot in the back . Host i dont really understand the question. Lets move on. Sharon from arkansas. There is one aspect of this entire subject that is never talked about. And that is immorality. Societygoing on in our that individuals are no longer held accountable or responsible for their actions . Seeing. Sad what im we live in a godless society. Our children are not raised with respect for authority. Cops are out there in a war zone. All you have to do is watch an and youor two of cops see what is going on out there. We are accountable for our actions. When we are stopped, when we are confronted, we comply. Comply. Respect. Thank you. Ok well i dont think there was a question there. We certainly recognize that the sanctity of life is extremely important. We dont want to lose any lives. We dont want to lose the lives of our citizens or officers. We have to create a culture where we have respect for that. Honor everybodys individuality, everybodys integrity. We dont want to demean everybody. We want to treat people the way we want to be treated. If that is what the caller meant, then i agree with her. Host mike in georgia. Hello. Caller dont cut me off, brother man. I study law for a couple of years and i try to help folks around here when they get in a bind. My daddy was a lawyer and if so be got in a bind, he would take them home and dropped them off at their house and that would be the end of it. I live in a little hillbilly hamlet. My wife was raped by a Police Officer and when i reported he was promoted. Every time they pull a kid over around here it is confrontational. It is all about the money. The fines, penalties, the levees. Ies. They got milliondollar cars. They put serve and protect off the side of the cars and put force on the side of the cars. Police come up in my yard. And menaced my wife. Somebody called the police on my wife and when i asked this lady what she was talking she was talking stupid to my wife. Statute was she here to enforce. She grabbed her gun and came out there. And i dont even dare report this lady. My police in this neighborhood i couldnt live here anymore. Mike. Thanks ank little bit about being africanamerican person, head of a city that is largely africanamerican, how does that impact what you do day by day particularly when it comes to police . Large poverty a rate in the city of richmond. Policing for us is extremely important. It is a delicate issue. We have to work very hard to make sure that we gain the respect of the people in our community. It is about the diversity. We have about 30 africanamerican officers. Officers to make our department more diverse. We have a sensitivity to the needs and concerns of the people in our community. Africanamericans in our community have had issues with policing in the past all over the country. But im very proud to say that i believe we are really chipping away at a culture that demeans africanamerican youngsters. And we are working very hard to make sure they have trust. Somealler said we have Police Departments with force on their cars. We dont have that honor cars. Were not trying to have the image where we are the big bad policeman. We hope we are not even needed. We hope we dont have to even come into a community. There are incidents that occur, then you need to have a police force that is able to step up to the plate. So we are very sensitive to the needs of our minority community. I have lived it. I dont have to go to school to learn it. I grew up in south philadelphia and came here to go to college. I have been in richmond for many years. I know the system and the bad actors in the system. You have to be able to weed out the bad actors and change the culture. That is a very difficult ship to turn around. Host this is mark from richmond. Caller good morning. I just want to ask the mayor, how do you feel about the legalization of marijuana . In light of what the d. C. Council voted a few months ago . Thank you and i appreciate you taking my call. Goodbye. Guest i really havent followed what is going on in washington, d. C. On the local scene there. But the legalization of marijuana seems like it is something that is gaining traction throughout the nation. The statet for 15ture i served years before he became mayor and i know that the state legislature here in virginia probably would not be inclined to move in that direction. Ireland dont think it is something were going to have to deal with in the short term. Host gale from virginia. Hello. Wanted to bring up a factor that has something to do with getting arrested when you dont need to be and maybe getting killed when you dont need to be. That has nothing to do with race. Interestingly, 30 years ago, i was in graduate school in st. Louis. Altercation, verbal altercation. The person called the police. The police came, asked me what was my part. I said one sentence. Said, just go inside your house and be quiet. And i started to say the exact same sentence, got halfway out, and i was arrested for failure to comply with a reasonable request of a Police Officer. I am caucasian. It has nothing to do with race. That particular thing. I do not believe young people understand that. That younglieve people even to this day understand that if a Police Officer says something, whatever it is, as long as it is reasonable, you have to do it. Or you are subject to arrest. Host mayor jones. Her incident was 30 years ago. While there probably are some Police Departments that are still caught up in a time warp, i think that in the city of richmond, i consider our policing efforts to be progressive. I dont think those kinds of things would happen here. The final part of her state was that when you are approached by an officer that you should comply. And i agree completely. These are officers of the law. When you are approached by an officer, he should be courteous to the officer and the officer should be courteous to you. There a connection between areas of crime and poverty and what are you doing about it in richmond . What we are trying to do is eliminate poverty. Ahave instituted what i call office of wealth building. Because we want to get rid of poverty in the city of richmond. We still have public housing. In the city of richmond. We are trying to mitigate that by replacing it with market rate housing and affordable housing. We have a very comprehensive program of job training. We are training young people to be welders, for jobs that exist. Good paying jobs that are not just hand to mouth jobs. Create careers and opportunities for individuals to take care of their family. Were looking at Early Childhood education. It is a gamut. Were talking about transportation. Making sure people have a way to get to jobs. I think the whole poverty issue for us, the low income issue for us, has got to be addressed not just with policing but with a comprehensive program to change that dynamic. To change that scenario. To take people out of the very depths of despair and give them hope for a better life. And when you have hope for a better life, you are not inclined to do things that are against the law. Washington, d. C. , here is john. Good morning. Caller good morning, mayor. Host you are on. Go ahead. Caller i am the executive director of public accountability and safety standards. We set up policies for elected officials. Because of the legalization of marijuana. We want to make sure that legalization only happens for public use. Not the executive elected body who we elect in office. And we are moving nationwide to implement these policies in many different states. Seven states have adopted some of our policies. D. C. , sinceington, the legalization of marijuana has taken place, we want to have a safety check. Not only for our elected officials but also our Police Department. The chief as well as our on the beat police force. How do you feel about that . Guest well, as i mentioned legalizede dont have marijuana in the city of richmond. So i really dont havent given that a lot of thought. I think that in areas where they do have it, it is supposed to be enacted to medicinal uses or approved by a physician. If that is the case, i guess they will have to make some as to who canns avail themselves of that and who cannot. Deals withse this the larger issue of Race Relations, what do you think needs to be done in that area . What is your role in the city of richmond . Guest in terms of Race Relations . Host improving Race Relations overall. Had racethink we have relations issues for years and years. We just lost one of our great civil rights icons, julian bond. We have had great leaders who lead for equal justice under the law. I think we have to continue that fight in a different way. I am in Public Office today because of my commitment to social justice. I grew up in the 70s. I recognized that there were inequalities that needed to be dealt with. I decided that the best way i could do that was to get into a position of leadership. So thats why i went to the General Assembly of virginia. Thats why im mayor of the city of richmond. You need someone at the top who is able to be intentional about making sure that individuals who work for you, individuals who are living in your city, are apprised of things that sometimes they dont even recognize as being discriminatory or racial. And so its important for us to just have a sixth sense about this. And recognize the importance of dealing with not just perception but reality. This is mayor dwight jones of richmond, virginia. Thank you for your time today. Guest thank you. Also want to thank the other members of the richmond Police Department for participant in this program. Thats it for today. A new edition of this Program Comes your way tomorrow. We will talk to republican president ial candidate steve forbes about the u. S. Economy. Then, washington, d. C. Attorney general karl racine. Live atton journal, 7 00 each morning on cspan. You can also join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Next on cspan, former president jimmy carter talks about his cancer diagnosis and treatment. Then, president ial candidate Rick Santorum discusses immigration. Later, senator marco rubio lays out his economic plan. This weekend on cspan networks, politics, books, and american history. On cspan saturday, live coverage of president ial candidates continues. We will hear from Chris Christie and bobby jindal. Sunday evening at 6 30, scott walker holds a town hall meeting in ashland, new hampshire. On cspan 2 saturday, book tv is live at the inaugural mississippi book festival. Coverage features former Governor Haley barbour, as well as Panel Discussions on civil rights,