Public Safety & Criminal Justice Reform Committee - Regular Meeting

I wanna call towards the legal city council, Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Committee meeting of 04/16/2026. Clerk, please call the roll.

Hobbs? Here. Williams?

Here.

Kramer?

Here.

McPherson? Meldon? Morris? Sorrento? Here. Also present, Driscoll and Gaddis? Ankle, mates.

Alright. We're gonna have our quarterly updates. First up is chief Allison Armstrong, TFRD. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you Chairman Hobbs, Vice Chair, President Williams, members of the committee. Allison Armstrong, Chief of the Fire and Rescue Department. With me today, Assistant Chief John Kaminski, here to present a very brief overview of the fire and rescue department. Current uniform staffing is at five eighty three. Year to date separations, we've only had one so far, nine additional confirmed upcoming, and we expect about 10 more.

So our class of 20 will just offset retirements and that class begins 07/31 with a graduation February '27. Total incidents through the first quarter, just over 15,000, which is a slight 1% increase of what we were in '26 over the same time period. But I want to note that, Toledo firefighters are responding to an average of 172 incidents per day. Fire incidents make up about 16% of that. EMS incidents comprised 84%.

Total responses at the bottom, that would be total rig responses because some incidents have more than one responding and that's an average of 314 rig responses each day. Here's a list of our busiest apparatus by type. Busiest ambulance is medic three over on Bush with over a thousand responses. Then engine twenty three which is in West Toledo. And then rescue seven which is on Franklin near Bancroft.

And then our tower ladder is off of Central Avenue. And we have three of those in the city, so they primarily respond only to structure fires or extrications because of the specialty equipment that apparatus has. For our ambulance transports, we're just over 6,200 through the March, and that's about 69 per day. For fire inspections, we've completed just over six forty with two thirty fire sprinkler plans reviewed by our plans examiners. Right now we are in the process of hiring another inspector to bring us to seven.

And then we are posting the additional vacancy that we have which once we get that filled will be eight inspectors and two plans examiners. Our community education team distributed and installed just over 500 smoke alarms keeping our community safe. Just a few high level highlights for '26. As I'm sure you're aware, fire station building maintenance improvements are always ongoing. However, through your support and funding, we've been able to tackle almost all of the leaking roofs except for the one at fire headquarters on Huron.

So we have a contract for that and we're going to move forward with completing that project with with a start date probably of July. And then also we have a few projects at '21. So one of those is a HVAC upgrade which they have a boiler system now and we need to put air conditioning in and I think forced air is what we're looking at. But that's held up because we're waiting on a waiver from the government that has yet to come through. Also doing some concrete work at twenty one's that is a station that's about a 100 years old and waterproofing there which we've struggled to get bit out.

For our fire vehicle replacement, we just received four new Spartan engines. Those are all in service now. And the other engines has a triggered on effect that they'll go in the reserve status and we move vehicles around based on mileage and year. So we have three ambulances on order right now. Delivery date is '27.

And then we're also preparing to send two more ambulances for a remount, which means they'll take our existing rig and basically redo everything on it, new chassis, new box. And the turnaround time for that is shorter, about six to nine months depending on how involved it is once they get in there. Last thing which I'm very excited to mention is that we're putting together a plan to update our current memorial site over across from fire headquarters. We've tried this a couple times in the past and for various reasons the project didn't move forward. So looking to do that and once I have some more information, I'll release it.

But you know basically the idea behind it is is to get donations from various places within the community to support that. With that, I'll take any questions.

Councilman Sorantu.

Thank you. Chief Armstrong, could you give us an idea of how much work how many fire stations still are going to need major remodeling renovations and so forth?

I think at the stations we've tackled most of the major projects. I can give you a list of our upcoming projects by way of referral. Okay. But also I'll say this, you know, Imlay is a building that is shared by us and Fleet. And you know, that building needs work. It needs a roof and so, you know, we're gonna have to have some conversations about what that looks like and a plan to move forward.

Okay. And which building was that?

Imlay. Our shop.

Alright. I'll make a referral. If you could just give us an outline of what needs to be done. If you have projected costs, that would be very helpful for us also. And when you would expect to have completion Yes. Of those remodeling options. Thank you. Thank you, mister chair.

Councilwoman Kramer.

Thank you, chair, and thank you for that report. Councilman Sorrento asked one of the questions I had about kind of deferred maintenance. But my second question is, I know we have received four engines, but what is the turnaround time right now if we did need more? How long is it taking upon order and then receipt?

So it's about six hundred days, six to eight hundred days.

Okay.

Yeah. We received these four Spartans I think in a little less than two years.

Okay. Alright, thank you.

Thank you, Council President Williams.

Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. I have a question concerning the recent death of Horace Oates. He died in a fire that on April 7, I think it was. I'm I'm I'm not I just wanted to see I just had specific questions I on know you can't go in too deep because it was considered a homicide because it was a fire set. Wanted to see what station was close to their Evansdale? Do you know?

So that's sort of in the middle of sixteen's, seventeen's and twenty five's I believe.

Uh-huh, okay. And all of them responded, right?

Okay. Yes.

Okay, and there were a significant amount of people in there, right? Yes. Nine people in there?

I believe 10 total. I can give you the information by way of referral, but my understanding is all of them except for the deceased were outside upon our arrival.

Was it a single family home?

Madam President, John Kaminsky, Assistant Chief. Yes, it was a single family residence, probably about 1,500 square feet.

Okay, all right. Thank you, thank you so much. That's all I really had.

Thank you, council president. Chief, again, thank you for being here. The fire that we had on Detroit, I think it was a seven year old in the, where we lost two lives here, Nebraska, How Nebraska, Nebraska, are we doing as far as the amount of smoke alarms and detectors that we have to give out to the public. How's that going?

The program itself is going well. I mean we received funding through this budget to purchase more smoke alarms because as I reported previously we were running low on them and we were running out. So those have been purchased and replenished. They went out after the fire on Nebraska. And I can get you the numbers. I think it was about a dozen homes that they went into and installed alarms. And then they just went out Monday in the Evansdale neighborhood. And I I wanna say they installed about 20 to 25 smoke alarms.

What is the if I need a smoke alarm, what's the best way to get one from fire department?

All the fire stations have them so they are able to distribute them and then they have a form that you fill out just with your information so we can collect that on the back end and know what kind of need there is in our community. But all of the stations should have them now.

My second question is on the ambulance remount. So that's, is that engine as well or the engine stays and you do everything else? And do you kind of have an idea, like how much does that save us on a remount versus buying a new one?

So the remount is only, my understanding and I can look into this a little bit further by way of referral, but my understanding is that we can only do it for our ambulances. And so six to nine month turnaround time, think it saves around 150,000 per unit.

Okay, all right,

that's good. I know you couldn't tell us too much today, but can we kind of get a general idea of what may be happening at the memorial? You're planning on doing some improvements at the memorial. What are some of the things you're looking at?

So we're still working design but we're just looking to, you know, update the current site and, you know, in talking with the Arts Commission, we probably will have to replace the actual monument only because of some structural issues with it. But the intention is to keep it in the same design but add maybe some designs and elements that really show that it's a Toledo Fire and Rescue Department memorial and just to make it a little bit nicer. I think that's long overdue. I think our fallen firefighters deserve it and our community deserves that.

Thank you. Thank you for your report. Thank you,

Chi. Next,

I believe Ms. Faldiano from judges. Thank you for being here today.

Good afternoon Chairman Hobbs, President Williams, members of counsel. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I wanna talk to you about two items from the court. The first item is I wanna update you on where we are on mental health evaluations. So I've been counsel before talking about the increases that we are seeing for mental health evaluations to determine whether or not an individual is competent to stand trial, and also evaluations to determine whether someone is not guilty by reason of insanity.

In 2024, we had 73 of these evaluations. In 2025, we had 110 of these evaluations. That represents an increase of fifty percent in the referrals. And for not guilty by reason of insanity, we have seen a 360% increase in referrals. Part of the challenge in this area is the limitations set by law of how the court can be involved and what the court can do with these cases.

Despite that, we have been working to find different options to try to help people not become involved more deeply in the criminal justice system, and to keep communities safe when we have individuals who have mental health issues that include disruptive or violent behavior are adequately addressed. The first thing we've done is we've signed an MOU with the Lucas County Common Police Court to supervise individuals who are not guilty by reason of insanity, who are eligible for community placement, so that there is a program to monitor these people in the community. Unfortunately for my court, the time under which we can have those individuals monitored is very short. But we do now have a contract for services that is being funded by the Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services. In addition, we have a hospital collaboration pilot project that we've extended to eighteen months.

This particular project targets people who are incompetent and unrestorable. For someone to be incompetent, they're not capable of cooperating with their defense counsel and they don't understand the nature of the proceedings, which prevents us from doing anything with their case other than dismissing it or referring it to probate court to determine whether someone needs emergency hospitalization. Cases that go to probate court often are confronted with lack of options and bed space for these individuals. So we have a pilot program that involves the board as well as St. Charles for people to be placed in St.

Charles for restoration so that they can be stabilized and be returned safely to the community. That program has been moderately successful. I think we've done 16 people in the eighteen months that we've had the program with the majority successfully returning to the community. The other thing I want to make sure that you're aware of is that this year we learned from our community based corrections facility, the correctional treatment facility, that they will no longer serve women. This was because of budget cuts for them.

What we are prepared to do is to put a request for proposal out so that we can replace the services that we've lost at CTF. So we'll be publishing that request for proposals next week so that we can continue to provide inpatient residential treatment for substance abuse for individuals in our community. Subject to your questions, that's all I have.

Council President Williams.

That's interesting. Can you tell me when that's supposed to take place? Are they closing the women's unit just down?

They have eliminated women from their program.

Like they, when did they do that?

In January. I, we are deeply concerned I think just as a way of background, CBCFs are really to serve common pleas level courts so that there is a option before people are sent to prison. Right. We have in our community a CBCF that we have been able to access through a contract for inpatient residential treatment. Prior to our contract with them, We had a contract in the community.

The problem with those sorts of contracts is people can walk out. If someone is at CTF they cannot walk out, it is not an option. And it has been an incredibly valuable asset for us because part of getting in treatment and staying in treatment for some people is not having the option to leave.

So I have a question because they, CTF has been really involved in the Harvard study. How does that look if they're not serving women? Does it still, is that separate from, is that program separate from CTF's operation? How does that look? Does it affect the Harvard program?

The study? So yes, so for, you're referring to our partnership with Harvard's Access to Justice Lab to study our diversion program. That program, which is an educational three and a half hour block, is not affected by this. Okay. This is specifically for the inpatient residential, which is thirty to sixty days of treatment. And for like common pleas, they are contracting with a CBCF outside of the county to serve the women that are going through that court. We've tried to work with that, it's Wood County CBCF and they're not interested in having us as a contract partner for that work.

Oh, okay. Well this is interesting. I know you have nothing to do with it. I guess we can just reach out to the county to see what that looks like, but thank you for the updates. Can you talk a little bit about the updates with the diversion program?

I would love to.

Yes. If I am chair allow.

I am like so proud of how we're doing. We just reached our fifty second week of enrollment for the program. We are ahead of pace by over two months and we are the only study that they have ever done that has been ahead of pace for enrollment. Our on-site coordinator that works for Harvard is doing a great job of talking to the community about the study and having people be willing to enroll in it. So we're doing really, really well.

Well I'm hopeful we'll get a full update soon about it because I love those updates. I know Councilman Hobbs does as well. I'm just saying kudos to judge Coleman and his activation and really pushing this program. So, thank you so much. Yes ma'am. Thanks chair.

Thank you. Councilwoman Gaddis.

Thank you chair. You had brought up about the increase in the non guilty by reason of insanities and there's only a limited time you can monitor. What is that time that you can monitor?

It is fairly short. I can give you a more complete answer by way of referral but generally two to three months. Okay.

And then do you keep data on our residents that go through that? Like do we keep data on age or if they're repeat offenders? Do we keep any data on that?

We do keep data. The data we keep tends to be about our efficiency in processing these cases and trying to ensure that the evaluations are done in a timely manner and that we are either dismissing the case or getting it over to probate court for consideration in a timely manner. Okay. I will say we keep more and better statistics for the pilot program with St. Charles because we are looking at things like recidivism. But that is, that because of the intervention we're being more proactive about keeping the data so that we can understand the success of the intervention.

Is there any community partners that would keep that data that we could tap

into? That might be something we could work with the board and Norris in terms of looking at data if we were interested in that and wanted to make the commitment to fund it.

Okay. Thank you. And then the second one you brought up was the incompetent. Do we keep data on those citizens, those residents as well?

I have basic data. I have names, you know, dates of birth. I can tell you with a little bit of research how often people come through. And that is one of the issues, right? So when law enforcement encounters someone in the community that is trespassing and has been somewhere before and won't leave and they need to do something, people get arrested.

Only the people that are getting arrested are incompetent of going through our process. Right. And so the lack of options to deal with those individuals. We have some different resources in the community like the ACT teams and we have officers that have their certification for CIT that help with those things. So it's definitely a multi layered approach.

Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman Kramer.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for this report, and congratulations on the diversion program. That's amazing. I have a question about the funding that was cut for CTF for the women being served. Where was that funding coming from?

So

the way we pay for individuals to receive inpatient treatment is from a series of sources. The first source is we receive over $1,000,000 in grant funding from the state of Ohio. And part of that funding goes to pay for treatment. We also have funding

through

a set aside in the state that is through the board, Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, where we can declare a surplus in that funding and reallocate it to treatment, which is what we do. So those are the two ways we pay for treatment for these individuals. So the cuts in the bed usage relate to, what's been related to me is that CTF was losing money on these beds because they had an entire unit set aside for women that they couldn't adequately fill to justify the cost of operating the unit.

Okay, thank you for that clarification, I appreciate it. Sure.

Ms. Fowler, the only question I had was you talked about a client not being able to understand or operate with their attorney. When that happens, are they automatically considered, does the insane piece that you talked about automatically apply if they can't work with their attorney, or is there some difference?

So there are two different things, right? So someone, the first thing is in this moment in court, can someone understand what is happening and cooperate? So that is the first thing that we look at. Someone can be sane at the time of the offense, but not competent enough to cooperate. If someone is incompetent but restorable, we have education that helps them understand what is going on and then treatment to restore competency.

For not guilty by reason of insanity, those cases we can't do anything with until they're restored, if they're restored. And again, because of such a short time that we can put people in lockdown situation, there's just not a lot we can do with those cases.

Thank

you, appreciate you, thank you. Thank you for the court, thank you for that update.

Thank you, I appreciate your time.

If there's anyone that would like to speak later, there is a sign up sheet on the table to my right, your left, if you want to speak. Okay. Now we're gonna have Chief Trembley and TPD to update, please. Thank you chief for being here today.

Thank you deputy chief for being here.

Good evening or afternoon, I guess whatever you want to call it. Chief Mike Trendley with assistant chief Kevin Braun just to give a brief update of some of the things that are happening inside the total police department. I will start with our current crime numbers. Overall, we are seeing reductions in the majority of the categories including a 33% reduction in homicides, a 37% reduction in robberies, a 23% reduction in theft from motor vehicles, a 6% reduction in auto thefts, and the we're three incidents higher than we were last year for persons shot. And the one area of concern right now is our burglaries.

We are actually seeing a 17% increase in burglaries this year. And this is the first year really since 2011 that we've not had a declining burglary statistic, which is concerning and we're looking through our criminal intelligence and using all of our tools there to do predictions and series on burglaries to make sure that we stay on top of them and to keep them under control. As we look at burglaries as a statistic back in 2011 which I referenced, we were roughly 9,000 burglaries. We're now roughly 2,000 burglaries and it's been going down every single year. And at some point unfortunately I think we will reach a point where we will find the baseline of burglaries and we'll be struggling to maintain and just to keep them at that level.

But for the last fifteen years, basically, we have been reducing burglaries year after year. It to me from a police department standpoint, I think burglaries are a very important stat. It's something that we focus on and through our intelligence led policing it is definitely something that we concentrate on. So we are working to get that number back down and hopefully in the year in a negative number there. Looking at our calls for service and our incidents currently through March, we're sitting at 44,028 incidents.

And that is a number that is actually 8%, 8.24% higher than last year. So we are seeing increasing calls for service and an increase in activity this year. So we are, as we're looking at our manpower, making sure that we have enough officers assigned to our field operations to handle those nine eleven calls for service is a priority. As you guys know, our budget, we are only going to have a class of 20 starting in April 24, next Friday. So unfortunately, it is anticipated that that number will not adequately cover the number of retirements we have this year.

So we will be seeing a shrinking police department this year. And we are in the process of assembling our leadership team to look at what services or what units that we currently have that we may not be able to support past this year. So that is something that we will be taking a look at through the summer and into the fall because even though the numbers will start to deplete slowly, for us, the end of the year and beginning of the year is a critical time for contracts and assignment of personnel. If they're not assigned there beginning in January, we're not able to change their shifts without compensation for changing their hours. So it is something that we're going to do this year to make sure that we are able to move forward through 2027 as well.

And when we talk about manpower, we currently sit at six zero four as of today. We do anticipate that throughout the year we're going to have roughly 35 to 40 retirements. And as we look at our retirements sometimes it's tough to predict exactly how many people will leave because of the drop program and the way our pension system is set up. Our officers do not have to indicate when they plan on retiring or when they enter the drop program. So that being said, if we do look at our staffing levels, as of today, we have 87 officers eligible for retirement.

And by October 19, we will have 105 officers that are eligible to retire. So they could leave at any time. Now, as we project, we do not anticipate that we're going to have that many retirements this year. But over the next several years, we have several larger classes that will be maxing out and will be retiring. One of the other things I wanted to touch on is with the passage of the budget and the allocation of money for our West Toledo community station.

We are moving forward on that and are hoping to have a lease signed sometime here in May so we can begin working on the building to get it ready for personnel to be inside. We are currently looking at a building at Jackman, Pennsylvania. And our hope is to have the lease secured, the updates done to the property, and a viable staffing plan before the summer hits. And as far as updates go, that is all we have for updates right now. And I will gladly ask or excuse me answer any questions you may have.

Thank you chief. Councilwoman Gaddis.

Thank you. Thank you chief. On the calls for service increasing, is that for both, non emergency and 911?

So it's that particular number we're talking about is all all of our incidents. So it does include 911. It does include our non emergency calls that are actually entered as a response needed. So these are the actual number of incidents that we respond to, not just the number of calls that we get. So that number will include if it is referred to what we call like our telephone reporting unit for a report to be made. But if it's just a general information call or if it's a duplicate call and there is no police service needed, that would not be included in that.

Do we include the Engage? Because I know sometimes people call in and it's something that's transferred to our community officers. Is that included?

So no, because that gets through the Engage Toledo. That is a separate mechanism or metric that we have that comes directly from Engage Toledo.

Okay. Thank you. And then when we made when we passed the budget, one of the things on that was in in the possibility of things you were willing to cut was the Celebrate software. And I've had some concerns from people in the community about the importance of that. Do you know the status of that software?

Yes. So it is a it is a very important piece of software for investigations. So we are finding alternate funding, models to try to pay for that right now. It is anticipated that we are going to, find a way to pay for that this year. We did have, well I believe it was in May we have to pay it. I think it's May we have it coming forward. We're able to look at some of our different line items and using some of our trust funds to find a way to get it paid for.

Do you know off the top of your head and I'm financing by referral, but how about how much we pay a year for that?

It's I think it's about $87,000.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, mister chair. Chief, I'm curious. You said we have 105 officers by October 9 something by October that will be eligible for retirement. How is it I understand that like, because of our pension program, we don't necessarily know who is going to retire. Is it then that you come to the conclusion that between thirty five and forty officers are going to retire this year?

Yeah, so what we do is number one, we do have officers that will actually sign up with our fiscal and tell them they're going to retire this year. So we do have that base number that we work off of. But then we also look at the age of our officers and how long they've been on the department because for our drop program, we know the maximum number of years they can do is eight. So as we look at those that have been eight years past their eligible retirement date, we start to recognize the fact that they're probably going to have to leave here shortly whether they wanted to or not.

Okay. Is there any coordination between your department and finance department about trying to understand that number a little bit better or?

So we do every year work with finance in when we're doing our budget and we give them our anticipated number of retirements each year. Now I will tell you for the last four years, our anticipated number of retirements and or people that have left the department has been exceeded every year than what we

actually But they're not privy to like the data that you're using necessarily?

No, so our Lieutenant Holmes when they work with the budget they give them the number because there is some money that is built into our particular budget on salary savings that is based off of how many people we believe are going to retire that.

I'm wondering if a little more stronger coordination between the department and our finance department just from like an actuarial perspective, they might be able to give us a cleaner.

Not not that I think

you guys are doing a bad job, but I mean, they're

they're accountants. You know, this is what they do for a living. So I I wonder if that kind of coordination might be helpful in terms of understanding projected retirements, maybe something we could look into in the future.

Absolutely, always willing to look into a better way of doing it because it helps us for staffing and have a better understanding of what we're looking at in the future.

I think so too, thanks very much chief. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Williams.

Thank you, Chair. Thanks Chief for being here and thank you assistant chief for being here. Appreciate you and I want to say thank you again for meeting with me the other day concerning probably why everybody is here because it definitely ain't about trash. And it's definitely not the same crew that was here to talk about trash which is unfortunate because that same crew that talked about trash should be talking about this topic. I've been I did do a press conference on this week and I want to clarify a statement that I made and then I'll move forward from that.

And I also have a statement from Councilwoman Doctor. Jones who had a family obligation and couldn't be here. There was a there was a statement that was misconstrued and it may have been from my delivery, but I want to make it clear, I would not ever encourage anyone not to comply with Toledo Police Department or any police. What I said and I want to clarify is I feel like black parents have to tell their kids prior to even preteen because I told my daughter at 10 how to interact with police. Most parents rarely tell their children how to interact with police if they're not black.

My statement was why do black parents have to have their children comply and teach them that when they do nothing wrong? That was my statement. Yes, we should comply with every police department. We should. We should follow every law, but at 15 years old and you don't have a driver's license or temps, that's not something that we should have to teach.

We should comply with the police. I would never want anyone to get injured or to be arrested because they're not complying. I want people to understand why should parents of African descent have to teach their children sooner than our white counterparts or any other counterparts. That was my statement, and I hope I clarified that as much as possible. I am not suggesting that we shouldn't comply with police.

I'm saying we shouldn't have to teach our kids earlier than others to comply. Now I move into my questions. When was the last time that we updated our police training documents or our police training? How often do we update our police training curriculum? I've been told different things, but I wanted to ask that question today because I've been doing some research and I want to dig into that.

Yes, okay. So there are some parts of our training that have been the same for dozens of years because laws haven't changed or policies with the state haven't changed. But every single time we have a academy, we do have to update all of our syllabuses and all of our topics for that we're teaching in the academy based on legal updates, based on a myriad of other things, including what APADA comes forward with and says that they need to have this particular topic taught or there's a new avenue to teach something. So every year we do. Two years ago, I believe it was when Lieutenant Tony took over, he did a major kind of overhaul of our training, including adding different training courses like iCATS and also doing different community based service hours with our cadets to get them out into the community working at the Boys and Girls Club or serving dinners or picking up trash at parks or something like that.

That is something that he added to the academy for service hours. So there was a major overhaul done two to three years ago, but every year, every time we have Academy, we have to refresh that training. And that goes for our in service training as well. Every year there are certain things that are required by the state and there are certain portions of that training that is changed whether via law or updates and best practices. So those trainings get amended every year as well.

I want to go back to ICAT. I did some research on ICAT because I did not see it and I didn't see it, I don't even know what I received because I asked for, we asked for specific things from the administration and I'll tell you what we got. I got the the class schedule, that's all I got. I actually wanted to see the content of what we worked with because I was looking at iCAT and I have some research here because as I stand up and I see it, I want to change. This is the change that I'm talking about.

It says ICAT training was associated with a statistical insignificant 28% reduction in the use of force in Louisville Metro officers and I don't know if you know that statistic but is there a reduction in our police department in the use of force? Do you I know

don't know that now. It's something that it is relatively new for our academy training. And this is the first year for our in service training that we're actually giving it to all officers. So it is a relatively new program. So to have any kind of statistical analysis of that program right now and to be able to make the correlation to the program itself, I don't think we're there yet.

Okay. So I definitely dug into this ICAT and I actually like that we're using that because it also says that if there was a decline in citizen injuries, twenty six percent, there was a decline, thirty six percent, in reduction of injury to officers. I definitely dig into that and see how we can incorporate that more. Also, do we use anything from the Ohio State University, John Glenn College of Public Affairs because they're doing some good things there and they have funding for these programs. Are we using anything from there that you know of?

I don't know if there's any of the specific programs that we're teaching came directly from there because a lot of our stuff comes via the state as well. So the state could be kind of piggybacking off of Ohio State there for the program and introducing it into a PADA. It is something that by referral we can take to see if there's any of that training that is actually right into our programs. And I'll

go ahead and do that. Georgetown Law Center also has some information, some programs that they're using, it's called ABLE, active bystanders for law enforcement. Do you know if that actually is being used in training?

I do not recognize that specific program as part of our training curriculum.

Okay, so I'll just send a

referral just so that we

can go through it because I think that this will definitely benefit our community based off what happened the other day. You and I had a great discussion and I think that you understand my position and I understand yours. My position is I'm a black woman. I'm an advocate for black women. I got I raised black women. I take care of black women. The incident that happened on this past weekend in my district was unfortunate and I felt like it was unnecessary. I understand the position that the police have to take. I understand that. I understand that.

That doesn't make it right. So thank you for being here to listen to the community and I'm not going to keep talking because everybody heard my voice enough. And I want to make sure everyone is clear on where I stand. I do not believe that young lady was treated fairly. I do not think that the children were treated fairly and I probably would never will.

I feel like that there is some things that could have been done better. I have been educated from people in the community, I've been educated from you and I still believe she was still treated unfairly. I think that as a as a mother of a young woman that I had to teach at 10 and I had to learn at ten, It's unfortunate. District 4 is probably I call the police more than any other district I think. I think so.

I think I do. I mean, let's be clear, got the most concentration of poverty in my district, so I have to call the police and I want the police to be safe and also the residents to be safe and the situation that happened was not safe for either residents or police. I'll read Doctor. Jones and then I'm going let the public speak to this because I want them to have their opportunity to voice their concerns. This is Doctor. Jones. Good afternoon President Williams. I was not able to meet tonight's meeting from a prior engagement. Good evening. Please accept my apologies for my absence due to my son's appointment because this is an important meeting.

I felt the need to share my words. I know most of you are here to express yourself concerning the abuse of that young lady. As I stated during President Williams' press conference, what happened was unacceptable. It was abuse, a use of excessive force and a display of dominance due to a fractured ego. This was a traumatic core memory for that young lady that will carry call for therapy, her rebuilding trust, dealing with her fear of police, and working towards being a productive human being again.

I stand with President Williams in asking for a full investigation and all charges drop. The officer involved should not hold any police position in the police department or similar job. This incident has crumbled all the work invested in police community relations. As a black woman, daughter, friend, sister, aunt, and now mother to two black daughters and a son, I fear for their future in this city. This is not how I envision a world for them.

I want to thank all who are standing up against this behavior and calling for change. I stand with you and want to work with with you all to protect our youth, especially black girls, sincerely, Councilwoman Doctor. Brittany Jones. Thank you, chair.

Thank you Council President Williams. Thank you Doctor. Brittany Jones in your absence. Councilwoman Gaddis.

Thank you. Just two quick questions. Are police, are they trained in any curriculum around childhood development or milestones?

That actually is a very interesting question.

I know as an educator like we there are definite milestones that we So,

yep. So there is training along juveniles and but to say the milestones of the development, I don't know for sure. By referral, I'll look into that and see exactly if the juvenile training actually covers those specific topics.

Okay. And then do we have disability and accessibility training for our officers as well? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman Kramer.

Thank you. And I kind of want to piggyback off Councilmember Gattis' question. And I wondered when the last time our de escalation techniques, when was that training last updated?

That's been updated every year for the last several years actually and the ICAD actually builds into that de escalation training. So that being a new program actually goes a larger step forward than just straight de escalation training that we've been training for the last several years.

Watching that video, was did the officer use the de escalation techniques that he was taught? Because it doesn't seem like it was an appropriate use of de escalation techniques.

So as far as using de escalation training that he's taught, That's so here's, we're currently investigating the, the incidents, and our internal affairs is doing that. And I'd be I'm very careful on the public statements I make before the investigation is complete because I do not want to influence one way or other that investigation. So in the internal affairs, while it's been stated and and truth does, report directly to the chief of police, The captain there and myself have a standing rule that I don't get involved in the investigation itself because I am very big on letting the investigation go where the investigation goes. And once he has that investigating completed and then briefs me on it, that's when we start talking about the different aspects of the case. So I do I I will make some I'll make a blanket statement that I don't think that, you know, there is always room for improvement.

These were very young officers, that actually graduated from their academy in January 2025. So they're they're very young officers that there is need for growing and experience, and they will get better as time goes on just like every other

We have to have order, please. We have to have order. Please respect as we will give respect to everyone that is speaking, please.

So from my perspective, not talking about the policies and or procedures that were used that may be subject to discipline, I will say that there is always room for improvement and there are certain aspects of the stop in the incident that I've had some conversations with that I think need improvement. Where it will get down to our internal investigation is whether or not those areas of improvement boil down to procedures or policy or legal violations because that's what our discipline is based on.

One final question. What's the timeline for the investigation?

So I actually believe this one will be done fairly soon. It's something that our internal affairs took immediately and started investigating. So they are pushing forward as fast as they can on this one. Technically they have depending on whether it's considered a minor or major, they have certain timelines by contract. But those are usually like ninety days, that is not going to take that long. That is something that we have prioritized and I anticipate within the next week we'll have a decision on it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Cole Mives. Thank you

so much. Good afternoon, Chief and Deputy Chief. Thanks for being here. I'm curious about recruitment. So the class begins next Friday. So do we have demographic information on those members that we're hiring and how many of them are from Toledo?

We do have that information. I'll have to give it to you by referral. I just don't have that information in front of me right now.

Okay. I will take it by referral. Also by way of referral, I would like to see a list of all of the tickets that have been issued over the last three years for jaywalking. And I'm going to ask our information. I'm also going to ask our IT department to map those out for us so we can see.

My guess is that we might see some relation to redlining. I also want to ask you about at the press conference that was held by President Williams, Mr. Murray alluded to the conversation of the meeting that you all had together and he claimed that you mentioned that using curse words is a technique to deescalate a situation. Can you clarify that comment for us?

Sure. The actual comments that said we had were that the officers actually did not elevate their language until several times of trying to talk to the mom about standing back. And several times, the mother was swearing at the officer, swearing at the officer. There has been proven, whether you call it verbal judo or if you wanna talk, sometimes raising your language, your voice to the level is the only way you can get attention to then start being heard. So that is the comment what I made to Mr. Murray.

Okay, I appreciate you clarifying. I would also love to, I'm gonna do some research and look at it. I find it to be interesting at least. I certainly don't appreciate when someone cusses at me and it certainly doesn't make me feel calmer when somebody does that. I also have a belief that if I were in a situation in the public and I were getting into if somebody was yelling at me, I'm not going to match their tone.

I'm going to choose to take a higher road. I'm going to choose to be a professional in that situation and not rise to the level that we witnessed in the video. And I think it's important. I think it's important that we all remember the importance of service and what that means and and what it means when we, I think that we've done a real disservice with this unfortunately and I appreciate the comments made about breaking of trust. I'm fearful for this summer.

I think that what we just what we are seeing now is a lot of kids who feel like they may be targeted. Know tensions are already high. There's an awful lot happening in the economy politically, globally. We are short on a budget. We are going have fewer opportunities for kids to have summer opportunities to potentially keep them out of trouble.

And I just really think that this is a really excellent opportunity for the police department to truly show their work toward remedying fixing this relationship that exists between the public and police. And so I appreciate that you've been a part of conversations so far. And I would also appreciate I think today if you could stay for some time today and listen to the public as well. I know that you all are busy and many of us may also leave a little bit early if we have to too but I think it would be really great if you could stay for some time.

I always do.

You also mentioned that these officers were new and so I will also request by way of referral any disciplines or actions taken that are on the record for officer Routzen. Since this experience has happened I I have been reached out to by several people about his behavior in the community. Including an incident that happened at a La Grange, at the La Grange Street Library where he was raising his voice, cussing and screaming at librarians that are there. I've requested that information from the library and I will be sharing it with you when I receive it. So, thank you very much.

I want to say I'm asking everyone please as we get ready to start comments tonight to observe. I'm asking everyone to please listen to everyone else whether we agree or disagree with comments being made there, here, by our police chief, deputy chief. I'm asking everyone to please be respectful of everyone else and listen. Number two, you have three clocks here, one, two, and there. Each person that has been asked what is requesting to speak will have three minutes.

So you will be able to see the clock and see what the time is. And because we have so many that are asking to speak, I think right now we have 20 or 21, We are going to hold you to the three minutes. Please, please use the clock and stay to the three minutes. And then lastly, I'm going to do my best to pronounce everybody's name properly. The names are written in cursive. If you've set up here, some of them are extremely hard to read. I am not trying to be disrespectful to you. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you. I'm going to do my best to read the name. Thank you.

Number one, first we have Ms. Brenda Gibson. Yes ma'am, please come. Right here to the podium, Ms. Gibson.

Does the clock start now? Oh, sorry. Hi, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity, first of all and foremost, to be here as a community. My husband and I have lived in Toledo now twenty six years and we're planning on retiring here. I'm already retired.

I really love this community, and now that I'm in retirement, have much more time to notice what's really going on. Our son sent me the video, and it hurt my heart as a mom, as a community member, and what really sunk me was I'm a white woman that can move around freely in our community. I never had to be trained how to respond to police when I was growing up. I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and kind of a rough area, but I want to really keep it simple because I don't want to take up anybody's time.

But I'm wondering if such a situation is so stressful, it's a stressful experience, and I could see that. You were saying, President Williams, is do 15 year olds even have capacity to understand what had happened? I have walked down our street, I don't know how many times, middle of the street, just having a good time, never even fearing that I would be pulled over. The only time I've been pulled over is speeding. Sorry.

And even that was cordial. Cordial. Ma'am, do you know what you were doing? Yes, I was speeding. So I'm wondering if it could be something as simple as instead of training just with black parents, could it be in grade schools as social justice class that say know your rights, know your parents' rights, know your neighbor rights, and things like that that could actually bring the community together and coordinate like that, so you don't feel like the burden is on parents, the burden is on the police to teach while you're doing your job.

But what I kept coming back to when I was doing some research is the burden of de escalation does not fall on private citizens. I really liked what you said, council member I don't know how to pronounce it. That really struck me. It does fall on police officers to de escalate it, and I don't believe bad language would do that. I would think that would keep escalating it.

You're going get mad, I'm going get mad. And the only way that poor girl had to fight back was to spit. If I'm cornered like somebody, I would come out fighting too. I looked to policemen to actually calm things down, and I didn't see that at all in that time frame. They were asked to, you know, trying to keep them safe, well then they called them back into the street to talk about what they had done. So that didn't make sense. Thank

you.

Thank you, Ms. Gibson. Morris Morris.

Good evening, everyone, to Councilwoman, Williams. Excellent, excellent, news conference. Some of you may know me, some of you may not. My name is Maurice Morris. I used to be a law enforcement officer.

As of February, I now hold a current Ohio peace officers certification. So I have the same certification the both of you have. I grew up in law enforcement, father, uncles. I'm from Charleston, South Carolina, where your modern day policing was started called the slave patrol. So I grew up in law enforcement, but I also grew up understanding what law enforcement was all about and how I should move about my community.

I do understand the culture in law enforcement is not good towards the black people all across the country. There is a video that's surfacing now of a white deputy sheriff taking a black female to jail, and he said, you want to know why white people are afraid of you, how you look, your violent tendencies. And that's just not only in that area, it's across the country. To the chief, I'd like to know what data do you have regarding citations issued for jaywalking and walking in the streets. This year and last year and where.

My second part of this is because this occurred, was the young lady No, I'm sorry, I need to step back. This was considered a pretextual stop. You know what pretextual stops are. Because they could do it doesn't mean that they should do it. Because she was in violation of a Toledo ordinance, the cops thought by stopping that they could find a bigger crime.

That's pretextual stop. And sometimes pretextual stops are used on black people across this country as punishment. 1,000,000 incidents resulted in use of force used by law enforcement. If you're black, you're two to four times more likely to have force used against you than if you're white. And I'm gonna leave with this.

This is from Connie Rice. The purpose of American policing is to control and contain populations of people who aren't meant to be in society. That's a problem. That's the prevailing attitude among police officers, white police officers. We want I'm pro police, anti corruption. We want good police officers that's gonna serve our community, but respect us for who we are. This is what we need. Now you offered, during the meeting we had with the NAACP, that we could come and be a part or at least listen to your de escalation classes. I'm gonna take you up on that. I want to see that.

I just went through it last month or a couple months ago. So I'm all about that. What we need now is we need some type of unification because this summer is not going to be a good one.

Thank you. I

believe Audrey Ramsey.

Hello, city council. My name is Audrey Ramsey. I am a spiritual leader in this city. I am a grief pastor of sorts. I retired from General Motors after thirty six point four years.

I work with a lot of people who are hurting, and I have a business in the city. I want to know, chief, how did you view the video? I want to know what you saw. Okay. But I want him to answer that because at dinner, as me and my husband sat and we watched the video together, this is what we saw.

We saw police officers going speeding down the street. It seemed as they were speeding. They passed some boys playing basketball in the street. They ran the stop sign, went around the block, and targeted some teenagers who could have been crossing the street instead of walking in the street. I'm like Councilman here.

I am so fearful for this summer. It breaks my heart to see what that family went through on that video. My next question to you is how do you think that African American officers would have handled that same situation? Because I guarantee you they would have handled it differently. Hey, y'all, get out the street.

Walking on the street is illegal or against the law. And then for him, he is supposed to be a professional, Higher standard. In service work, you guys are supposed to protect and serve us. I got a lastly, I got a Facebook post I wanna read to you. This is my niece.

So yesterday, my 15 year old grandson was walking back from the Family Dollar on Bancroft And Forest to basically cross the street to East London Square by himself. He had encountered three black, unmarked, undercover SUVs pull up on him because he crossed the street in the middle of Forrest. They told him that he was jaywalking. They asked him for his ID and had he ever been in trouble. He gave him his central Catholic ID and told them that he had never been in trouble. They scared him to death.

Janice Fryer.

Good evening

council members. My name is Janice Fryer. I'm a ward chair. I'm a mother, grandmother, great grandmother. I have daughters. In fact, I have police and firemen on both sides of my family. What I saw on that video, I was appalled. That young lady, first of all, they asked for ID. Why would she have to have ID to walk down the street? That street had no sidewalks.

I bet you this morning that Charles' body felt like a whole army battalion walked over it. That young man that is working, is still working, he's only been on the force for a year, he should be still on probation. I don't believe that he stopped her just to be stopping. A gerbil crawled up his butt and he was in, just wanted to do something. I really do.

Because it was uncalled for. Now I don't condemn the sputum, you know, spitting on the officer's face. But what else was she supposed to do after being body slammed? And then get up and turn around because she did that, body slammed her again? No,

no, no, no.

That's wrong. And as far as the cursing, that was uncalled for as well. The name calling. If I know if the shoe was on the opposite foot, I know that we would not have been suspended, I mean still working, we would have been laid off fired. And I know that.

But I'm not saying that you should, you know, stop doing what you're doing because I have police officers, like I said, on both sides. But I like to know what McDonald's was he at for the coffee and have coffee and friends with the police officers. He should not even be on the police force. 21 years old, only been on there a year, this is how he's doing and showing how he cheered himself?

In a

In a year. He still should be on probation. Thank you.

Carla Thomas.

Hello, and thank you so much for allowing me to speak tonight. Thank you, Council Chair and Council President Williams. I appreciate your strong press conference. We really needed that. And I'm gonna direct my questions to counsel because I believe the bigger issue here is accountability, and the the police department is operating the way they've been operating.

So I would like to ask you a few questions. When I first became aware of this incident, I sent three separate emails. The first was to the civilian police review board, which I quickly found out is no longer functioning. That might be a city of Toledo question. Then I sent an email to all the members of City Council, and I'd like to thank Councilwomen McPherson and Kramer for responding, and also Councilman Cermanto for taking the time to reply to my email.

And then I also sent an email to the mayor, and I appreciate his assistance reply for addressing all of my questions. And so this afternoon, I would like to take this opportunity to ask my questions directly to counsel while I'm standing before you. We've also seen the video. And so what I want to know is what policies govern use of force on minors and how are those policies being enforced and overseen? I don't expect you to probably answer all of these now and I don't mind following up to my email.

What actions are taking are you taking to ensure this incident is independently reviewed and addressed? And I believe you might have answered that already. What oversight role will you play to ensure accountability in this matter? And how will you ensure the public is informed of the outcome of this investigation? And then I would also like to add another question. Will community policing ever come back, or how will you enforce or introduce that back to the community? And that is all. Thank you.

Daniel.

Evening, everyone. My name is Georgia Daniel, and I am a adjunct professor of women's studies, racism, and sexism. And currently, I'm a community activist through the National Action Network founded by Reverend Al Sharpton. And what I found in looking at the video was totally appalling. Chief, racism.

I'm calling it out for what it is. It's racism. To our council president, council members, committee members, thank you for putting this on the agenda. Thank you, council president, for your strong stand. I am demanding, as a taxpaying citizen,

that the officer be fired.

Second, I am demanding that all charges be dismissed against the young lady. And third, I'm asking that we reinstitute a familiar board with the citizens. I feel that although we are looking at a hot summer, we still have the capacity to cool it off.

We

just approved I think it was a billion dollar budget. What percent of that budget is going toward our youth? Our youth are our future. I don't have to tell you that. But I'm saying it again. Our youth are our future. And we need to take control of this. Chief, I don't know you. But I trust that you will take this very seriously. Our community is hurting because of this. We have the capacity to do better. And I'm going to quote before I sit down. Maya Angelou says, When you know better, you do better. We can do it. Thank you.

Brother Washington Muhammad.

I'm brother Washington Muhammad, co founder of CSRN and also an active and registered member of the Nation of Islam here in Toledo. And at CSRN, we put together a lot of the Black Lives Matter protests to defund the police and to end qualified immunity. I want to thank you for allowing me to speak these few words. I want to thank president Williams. We love you.

We love you. We respect you. My wife is black. My mother is black. My sister is black. My daughter in laws are black. And it

was six years ago, in May,

when we had the Toledo Police Accountability Rally.

All of us showed up with t shirts and flip flops, and it was the Toledo Police Force that showed up with snipers on the roof. We showed up peaceful, and they know it. It was us that were pepper sprayed in tear gas. It was us that was shot by rubber and wooden bullets. It was us that sold the city of Toledo for $1,200,000 and one.

I wanna thank councilman Harper, Sykes, and Raleigh Raleigh, because I don't think you all realize that they were on the forefront of police reform. They were this close. They were this close before they were betrayed in our community. They were betrayed by their own. And I stand that.

The city of Toledo put together after a rally its own civilian review board, which is one of the weakest boards I've ever seen. It was cherry picked with some of the most compliant, white made, handicapped people that I know. And within a few months, they couldn't even stand their own selves. That's why that doesn't exist today. I say to CSR, and we've already drafted the framework for our own independent review board that doesn't need the police and friends of the police for us to be able to charge them.

Why shouldn't they deserve a a hard night sleep. Uh-huh. They deserve to be traumatized by their own hand. We can no longer continue to just have president Williams come out and stand in front. Doctor Jones to come out and stand out in front. Nick to come when is it gonna be all time to say enough is enough? And make our community a safe and decent place to live. I wanna thank you, congress councilman Hobbs, for cheering this. This is my passion, and I believe that this summer will be great if we take the lead. We have to take

the lead. They work for us. I hate everyone. Alright? They work for us.

So let's act like it. Thank you.

Beatrice Daniels. Bishop Thomas. Bishop Thomas J. Thomas. Madon Jones. I think that's correct.

Good evening, city council members. I am not here as a test resident, but I am here as a mother of two daughters, two black daughters. And when I seen that video about a 15 year old child being harassed, physically attacked, and abused by an officer over jaywalking, I didn't hear just a news story. I saw my own daughters. I thought about them walking down the street, maybe laughing, maybe distracted, maybe just being kids.

And the idea that a simple mistake could turn into fear, force, or harm at the hands of someone of authority is unacceptable. Jaywalking is not a violent crime. It does not justify aggression, and it certainly doesn't justify traumatizing a child. As a mother, I have raised my daughters to respect authority, but I also need to know that authority will respect them. Right now, my trust feels broken.

I have a daughter that's eight hours away learning to be a dog. I don't know what I would do if I got a call about her being abused by an officer in a new city. Because what message are we sending to our young black girls and all of

our black

children when an interaction over something so minor escalates like this, that they should be afraid, that they are not safe in their own neighborhoods. We cannot accept that. I am asking counsel to take this serious, not just as an isolated incident, but as a warning sign that we need stronger de escalation training, especially when officers are dealing with minors, black minors, and black neighborhoods. Clear accountability when that training fails. Transparency so families like mine know the truth about what happened and what will be done to prevent it from happening again.

And we also need to know that officers are leading by examples. Because this isn't just about one child, it's about every black child, including my black daughters, who deserve to grow up feeling safe, protect, and respected in this city, more so country. I shouldn't have to fear for them doing something as simple as walking in the street. So I ask you guys, do better for them and for all of us. Thank you.

As we move forward, we're trying to fix our clock, we'll keep Alright. I think I have Nicole L or Nicole it is no last name here just says Nicole.

I can give you I can provide that if it's needed.

Okay. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. I just wanna make sure I called the right Nicole.

My name is Nicole. I don't have any fancy credentials. I'm just a citizen that would like to share some points that may or may not be reflective of what everyone here is talking about. I think Toledo fire is gone. But Teresa Gaddis, can somebody give her some support in East Toledo and all the houses that have been marked by TFD?

How long do we wait? Because in three months, this conversation will be another tragedy, right? So Teresa Gaddis deserves some help in East Toledo in getting these houses tore down. Toledo fire and TPD neither shared any diversity numbers. I did see the video.

I do have concerns that are and may maybe maybe because there was no data shared specific to this, does our people that wear a uniform for Toledo Fire and Toledo Police reflect the members of this community? Do they have enough color that when they go into those neighborhoods is reflective of safetyness and trust. And what we do today, whether you're a citizen, normal person, you know, not on council, what we do today will reflect who's serving in these uniforms in five years. I have I have no idea. Maybe we do have good numbers.

20 people. I don't know what of those 20 new recruits that are coming in. I hope that there's a couple that are not white men. TPD, I hope that there's some sort of program that offers counsel and other members in our community that can understand what citizen programs are to help. But I also want to I'm a little disheartened about some of the conversations that have been going on this week.

As a single woman, if there is something that happens in I don't want to take matters in my own hands. I don't want my neighbor to avoid calling 911 because he can handle it. We do not deserve Trayvon another Trayvon Martin situation. We deserve, in Toledo, a peaceful society. And as somebody said, we can coexist and live in harmony.

I truly believe that. I hope that the four individuals who beat down the elderly man a couple weeks ago in the courthouse, I hope they are taught better. I hope that elderly man feels safe soon in Toledo, whether he's I think he's an unhoused individual.

You, Paul. That's our

three Jaywalking. Am I done? The jaywalking. I cringe. Every time I'm through Central And Secor, somebody is not crossing in the intersection. So the numbers that went up on squads that went out

Thank you, miss Nicole. That's your three minutes. Thank you. Mister John Bibish.

Thank you. I'm here to brighten the atmosphere. The first good news is I don't have any questions for you, chief Trinley. And I'm also want to congratulate city council as a whole for passing the $500,000 supplemental appropriation for a police presence in West Toledo, and specifically to thank councilwoman Gaddis, Councilman Sorrento, Councilwoman Kramer, and Councilman Driscoll for supporting that legislation. Now we've got a 500,000 but I am here to make a request of the safety committee.

And that's a that request is simply that they pass a pass a referral to either the administration or to the or to safety administration to ask for a specific project plan on how that $500,000 is going to be spent this year for the implementation of a location prop I suppose on the corner of Jackman in Sylvania. Project plans are how things get done. Timelines, charts that show completion dates or percentages of completion, responsible parties or how things are done properly. And for this amount of money being dedicated by city council, I don't think anything less is adequate. It'll keep everybody on their toes to reward the successful and keep an eye on the rest.

Thank you very much.

I think it's Ayesha Shoemaker. What is it? Ayesha. Ayesha Shoemaker. Ayesha Shoemaker. Ayesha.

Well, I wanted to applaud miss Williams because I felt I really felt empowered as a black woman and a black mother when you were speaking. But I am a mother of five boys and I'm a mother of two daughters. And it was and when I seen that video, it broke my heart. And it took me back to a time, like ten years ago, when I got stopped by the police. I was I was just sitting in the car with my friend and her and her cousin.

And your police officers came and told us to get out the car and pat me down, you know, and y'all didn't have a reason, you know what I'm saying? But I just feel like as a black woman, we should be protected. And that day, Friday, them kids wasn't protected. I'm just going be honest. And I have and I personally have sat, you know, with you at at the table, you know, when Gerald Rose came.

And you remember we had a conversation and you were like, oh, I don't have no bad apples. And I said, we got bad apples in the world. I said, you got bad apples, you know, in your department. And Friday, you had your bad apples out there. And I just feel like everybody, even your other officers, didn't do the code of conduct because at the end of the day, when their partner is doing something foul, nobody stopped them.

So I just feel like something needs to be done because it's all kids that suffer. You know, like eventually, I'll be a grandmama in boo hoo years. I don't want to have this story or see anybody else go through this story. But we do need to come together and we do need to come up with a plan. And we do need to be up close and honest because all I could see is that was redlining.

It straight was redlining. And and I I even went to a meeting about redlining and I just could not sit there. I said, you know, we're discriminated constantly as black women. Like, you know you know, I'm at the documentary about infant mortality and losing babies or whatever. But to see my see our babies out there suffering and nobody was there to help, code of conduct was broken. So something's gotta give and folks need to be honest.

Yes.

Hello, council chair, Venice Williams, council members, chief Trolldahl. Thank you everyone, for having this meeting. The reason, why I'm here today is, I have a personal issue with the Toledo Police Department. I won't get into that. I'm here because I have I live in West Toledo, but I have family and friends who own businesses and residential and commercial properties in North Toledo.

Okay? I'm a proud citizen of Toledo, and the Toledo Police Department right now is not making me proud at all. I don't believe it should make anyone proud at all. Recently, the mayor came and he announced that he wants to draw people into the city of Toledo. I have people in Atlanta, Georgia who have heard about this incident in Toledo.

It is national news about how a Toledo police officer, a grown man, body slammed a 15 year old girl to the ground. You can call it taking her down, restraining her, placing handcuffs on her. But the fact of the matter is it was a minor misdemeanor that was alleged in the first place. The Ohio revised code four thousand five eleven defines pedestrians walking in street. The first clause of that states that if the people don't move out of the way.

The children in this video moved out of the way. Second of all, the police vehicles all have a Yelp button in there. We all know what that Yelp button is. That's the Yelp button that Toledo police officers hit when they want to go through a red light rather than wait for traffic to pass. Okay?

They use it at their convenience, but in this situation, they chose not to use that Yelp button, the equipment that they had in their patrol vehicles. I heard that proposed new training should be instituted. I would like to know what is wrong with the training that is in place. Before any officer becomes a Toledo police officer, they have to be certified. They go through a rigorous academy and training out there in Perrysburg.

The Toledo Police Department has a social media site, and they post. They even posted today and yesterday about the upcoming events. Okay? So when you have those training academy

Thank you, mister Doran.

Thank you,

mister Doran. That's your time. Thank you, sir. Thank you. You. Paula Thomas.

The Toledo Police Paula

Thomas, that's your time, mister Doran.

Policies and procedures that are already in place. And we don't want officers

Mister Doran, that is your time, sir.

Under the influence and sexually harassing women on the job.

Will. She

is. It says Carla Thomas again. Is there another Carla Thomas here or did she already speak? Okay. I'm sorry. Your name is on two different sheets. I apologize. I apologize. I think this is Alicia. Is it Lawson? Alicia Lawson. Alicia Lawson. Thank you. Sorry. Alicia Lawson.

Thank you. I just want to say that Chief Trendley, right, you know, we grew up with police being our heroes. You know, I always wanted to be a police officer because I wanted to be a hero. And I invited you to come and talk at Superior Made Spaces downtown. Thank you, Denise, for showing up yourself.

And at our grand opening three years ago, you spoke and you spoke about safety downtown for, for everybody there. And they asked you a lot of questions. You did a great job. And I told you that my husband and I, we practiced de escalation because we're opening the first African American off of Superior Made Spaces. We branched off of that. We partnered with Metro Parks, and we're opening the first African American RV park here near Toledo in Swan. It was rough, Okay? A lot of people left because we were black. That's fine. We're used to it.

De escalation. We opened the first African American RV resort in Alabama. Okay, it sold quickly. We came back home. We're from Toledo. First camp at Gunkel. Okay, Duke Mo College, all right? Had a good time.

All right?

But I want to say that with de escalation, it was tough. My husband still struggles with it. But we have to put our pride down. We have to help. We have to say hello first. We have to let that person scream and holler. But you know, we have to stand there with pride. We have to stand there and we have to take it. And we have to show love regardless. We have to show them that we care because we are humans.

We have to show them that, no matter what they're doing. Our goal is to make sure they're safe and to make sure that the situation is handled with the utmost professionalism. That's what we do. I'm very disappointed at this video. Let's put the girl aside for a minute that was thrown to the ground. Let's talk about the young man that had his hands, had to put his hands out. Okay? Let's talk about him because had he ran, hit the dead. Okay? I mean, let's face it.

This young girl may have saved his life, because he had to deal with her. I feel for the fact that, hey, she she got thrown down, maybe a broken arm. Had he ran, he wouldn't be here today over a jaywalk. Okay? I'll ask you at the main thing, is there anything we can do to help maybe get involved with the community? We have practiced de escalation so bad, and we've got a grand opening coming up, and it's a struggle. Black and white, you know? They're all fighting to be part of this, but my husband and I take one stand. Look, we're campers first. We are human.

We love everybody. And we stick to that. No matter what we do, we stick to that. You're going to have to make a decision here soon. You're going have to get off

the fence. Miss Lawson, that's your time. Thank you And so much. Thank

you. You.

Earl Murray.

That. I will not talk about anything that some of the big talked about because I think you heard them quite clearly. But I do want to clarify a little bit earlier that what the chief and I talked about already that councilman Coleman asked him. And I asked the chief, when is using proprietary word de escalation? So it's not just a discussion as he put it.

It was greater than that. You know, I do show my dad a lot of a line for the clock. Now I did not and had not come when I talk about credentials, but I am a retired Emeritus professor, former professor vice provost for the University of Toledo, and assistant to the president of the University of Toledo. I'm also a former commissioner for the center of Columbus, a first African American Olympic commissioner in this position because I won all the roles for the civil service commissioner in Columbus as well as when Bill Hawking was sitting

the

because I am one of the authors of the state and public relations board for collective bargaining all over the state of the house. So I don't understand the old collective bargaining too. So having said that, being around the clock, it is disrespectful at best for the chief, Walter had my loyal butt officer temporarily approved. And I do understand what the police have spoke. In fact, Thank you very much.

Thank you, doctor Lewis.

I believe it is Janessa Bugatti I think. I'm sorry if I didn't say that correctly.

Thank you. Giving honor power glory praise to the most high who strengthens me and guides me. Also to Emmanuel, the true son of the most high, blessing city council, Toledo Police Department, and the community. Thank you all for being here. President Williams, thank you for that clarification. I understood you. However, I do understand why it might not it might need to have been addressed. As an military brat, I grew up sitting on the curb waving at police officers. I love that you are all brave enough to to serve and protect. However, my heart is sad, Not broken, just hurt.

This is why. From before 2020 until now, I have kept my eye on Toledo Police Department, and I felt as though you all had been making necessary changes to be above all the controversy. Even telling my children that there are right and wrong behaviors in everything, so to still wave at the police officers, to still respect them, and to still hold true to what I had taught them about police officers. That it's how you handle a situation, how a situation is handled by the administration that should be remembered. Right now, all I remember is that a peace police officer is not being held to his expectations, and yet you are comfortable charging a still developing teenager with charges.

Now I fear that the force might have only just gotten better about hiding their behaviors. John F. Kennedy said, if The United States fails, then the whole cause of freedom fails. I wrote this poem called 56 Signatures. On July 4, they wrote the declaration. It stated, we come together to create this great nation. That government was put in place to bring injustice to an end. All men created equal, that's the American blend. What happens when a government is destructive from within? It's our job at it says it's our job as the people to come together and abolish it then. Once the old one is torn down, a new one can stand tall. The key is to not let the good old boys in at all. How do we do that? How do we keep the government clean? Just look at who's being mean.

If it isn't fair, if the judge isn't fair, don't be nervous, don't be scared. Stand up and stand tall. Corruption can't win it all. Have a quote that thank you. I have a quote that says, racism thinks it will cause us to sin. Not having hate for races. That's how we win. Toledo says we can do better in Toledo. Now it's it's time to prove we can do better in Toledo. I'm concerned about this summer, but I'm faithful in the Toledo Police Department and the community that you will and we will come together to resolve all the issues that we're having, and we will rise above.

We are in Ohio, the heart shaped state of America. We are the exact pulse that John F. Kennedy was talking about. We have to change. Thank you very much. Have a blessed day.

I believe this is Lashana Alfred. Lashana. Lashana Alfred. Thank you. Sorry.

Hello and thank you. I just wanted to come on, come up to share something behind the scenes that you may not know. So, I am a licensed independent social worker. I'm the CEO of You Change Behavioral Health and the president of Legacy Change Consulting and Training. And also an adjunct professor at the university teaching master level social work classes.

I had the opportunity to do cultural sensitivity training with the police, Warmeet Police Department. And one of the evaluations, they said this was the first non white that we had teaching a cultural sensitivity training. The other thing I wanted to share was some of my students and I thank God that I get an opportunity to really impact and influence the lives of young minds. And one of the classes that I teach at the University of Toledo is an introductory to social work classes. And I had a young man who was in the class.

He said, I want to go to be a police officer. So I'm not the normal everyday type of professor, adjunct professor. I like to get to the root. So I asked the question, well why? He said, because I want to get I want to deal with the bad people. So now I'm like, okay, yeah, because I'm from the hood. So, you know, I want to know who are these bad people? He said, drug dealers. So now I'm like, okay, because there's certain words that's associated with certain cultures. So now I asked the question, I said, okay, well when you say bad people, tell me a little bit more.

He said, well drug dealers. And so as we began to talk, he shared a story about his dad being on drugs. And so he contributed his trauma as a child to the bad drug dealers, right, who affected his life. So now just think about we having these individuals on the police force who was literally targeting because they have their own undealt with trauma. And so I know, please don't hear the, you know, the communicate, the community and come in and have a stance as if it's us against you.

Right? It's not that. It's us against the problem. And so as I I literally thank you. I literally had to not see a trauma client because I needed to be here today. And I was like, man, God, what was this that I've seen on this video? And I'm going share with you what I've seen. I've seen arrogance and pride come up against trauma. And so when those two collage, this is exactly what we're going to have. I've seen implicit bias because in certain cultures or communities, they don't think people care.

But this situation let them know that they were wrong. The community does care. They care. And it's not about you against us. It should be about us against the problem. And so while they're asking about trainings, as a trainer, I understand that you can have the best practice curriculum, but if you have the wrong people training it, Thank it'll run through the you. And so, thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Doctor. Alfred. Sabina Rodriguez, if I said that correctly. Sabina And Sabina after she has spoken our last speaker will be Nate Lawson.

How are you? My name is Sabina Rodriguez and I carry a lot of hats But the most important hat that I carry is a mother. I come up here as a mother. We've had interactions. My son was slammed by the Toledo Police Department for walking on the sidewalk.

When he was originally arrested, he was charged with disorderly conduct because they said he used curse words. After they were on the tape, they said he used a curse word, so that's why he was arrested for disorderly conduct. And then when he was taken to the county jail, he was charged with that's what he was told he was going to be charged with. Then he was charged with public intoxication. They got into the county jail.

He hadn't had one drink. The county jail refused to charge him with public intoxication. And mind you, this is somebody that my son went to high school with, who he had altercations in high school with. So when she was talking about past trauma, and when I went and talked to Chief Trundle, guess what? Nothing was done. My was downtown video recording. And his equipment was destroyed. Nobody paid for it. Nobody is being held accountable when our kids are being assaulted. I talked with Chief Trundle.

Valdez Velasquez from Flack joined me so we could have that meeting, and we had a sit down meeting. The officer did not have to be present. He did not have to be held accountable for what he did to my son. And my son was charged. Later, the charges were dropped. I think I spoke with you also, Mr. Hobbs. We met. You had a talk with them and had them return my son's equipment. But why are our kids falling on the wayside?

Why do our kids not mean anything? Why are they not being held accountable? I work with kids in the neighborhood all the time. And you know, when I saw this video, the first thing I did at my class that day, I said, what do you do when you encounter the police and they ask for your ID? Half of the kids didn't know how to answer that because they'd never had an altercation with the police. And that saddened me, because any one of my students could be assaulted by an officer, because they don't know how to interact with the police. And that's sad. And we had talked about it then. You guys said we were going to start having these events in the parks. We were going to start introducing our kids to the police and creating a relationship between our kids and the police.

And I've yet to see that. I've yet to see that all the things we talked about have yet to come to fruition. You told me you were going to call me back and let me know what went on with the officer that assaulted my son. Nothing was done. He's still out on the streets. Actually, there was another video that surfaced after that of him assaulting somebody else. So we need to stop talking and start taking action. Because here we are a year later, somebody else's child was assaulted. I had to sit there and think, my kids don't know how to interact with the police. What are we going to do? We can't talk. We've got to have action.

Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez. Nate Lawson.

Good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming out, being here, and allowing us to speak. You guys, much respect. I know you got a big job on your shoulders. I know a lot of people came up here fighting and saying, hey, all the cops are bad and this and that. I respect you guys. You got a bad job. But I have to hold you accountable for taking that job. You know, it's a hard job. You took it. I can't do it, so I'm not gonna try. But councilwoman, president, spoke about the speech. My speech came at about twelve twelve, 13 years old. Boy, this is how it came to me. Boy, sit down.

I said, what did I do? You didn't do nothing. I don't talk to you. I wanna tell you about your life. You have two strikes against you. You're born black in The United States. You're already born with two strikes. So when you go out here in these streets, this is how you interact with the police. Comply, of course. Do not be combative or anything to them, and just respect the situation and hope you get out of it alive.

That's the speech I got in the long run, and it wasn't cool because now I'm almost 60 years old and I still have to live that way. It was just two or three weeks ago I got a ticket for obeying the law. Imagine that. The law is simple. I'm on the highway, just a pulled over vehicle. The law states in the literature, you slow down or you move over to make a safe passage on that that vehicle that's parked alongside the highway. I couldn't get over, so I slowed down. I got pulled over. He gave me a ticket for what was it, babe? Might as well have been.

I'm a black man driving a Cadillac. That's why I got a ticket. He said, well, this is not gonna put any points or anything or your license or anything like that. I it was something what did he say? Was impeding traffic. That's what it was. It said it on it. But that's what I was supposed to do, slow people down, slow myself down so we passed this vehicle safely. I paid the 100 and something dollars. So I'm still going on 60 years old,

and I've still got

to deal with this two strike. That's got to change. We need more diversity in our police department. We truly do. I don't know how we're gonna do it with these kids today. Can't get them out of the bedroom and off the phone, but we gotta figure out something, y'all. And and as far as that young girl and that police officer, I'm just gonna wrap that up real quick and easy. He gotta go. If he already slammed him kids.

And how did he find his own kids?

Because what is he doing to them behind closed doors? We don't know. How did he pass his psych evaluation? Oh, I forgot. You know, it's a biased test. They already know the answers. Change the test. But thanks, guys. Y'all have a good evening. I'm sorry.

At this time, I wanna thank everyone that spoke. We did have some come in after we cut our initial sheets off. There is a time that we had that we wanted to be here. So for those couple that the ones that signed up afterwards, we've got to move on with this meeting and finish up. I want to ask council president and then councilman Driscoll and then we're going to be dismissed. Thank everyone. Thank our chief. Thank all of you that came and had words today. Thank you for our community. Thank you for us keeping us in an environment where we were able to listen to each other and hopefully learn from each other today.

Council president Williams.

Thank you so much chairman Hobbs. I do have a question that came in afterwards and it's been arising chief.

You can

answer it in front of everybody or answer it by referral. Why was the officer reassigned and not suspended until the investigation was completed?

So basically for this particular incident, he was re when we say reassigned, was moved to a different district. For this type of incident, there's investigation that happens. We don't suspend people unless usually it's a criminal charge or there's something else that happens. But for general policy for this in the using the contracts in past practice on how we do, things according to collective bargaining, that is not something that we would suspend somebody for. We moved him to a different district for the community and for the officers, their own protection, and for the community to feel safer and to know that he's not in that area.

Thank you so much for answering that. I actually I wanna thank everybody for being here as well. This is something that we have to collectively do together to help because there are some things that aren't understood from different communities and to bring this together will be beneficial and I'm ready to get in the weeds of it because I don't meet to meet, I don't talk to talk, I actually want to do stuff and being an educator if we got to have a safety city to teach our kids to comply or a safety city to teach our officers how to interact, I'm ready to do that. I don't know what it looks like, but like I'll say brother Muhammad said it best, like we got to do something. We got to do something within our own community as well because we do need more black police officers, but situations like this keep us from getting our fellas here.

And I did have a conversation. Most I can tell you in my family, most black males in my family are felons because of how our community is police. So I wanna work together and chief knows my heart. I wanna work together to make sure that we get this get this good. I wanna make this good.

I wanna make it's unfortunate that this young lady had to experience this, but we can't let her experience go in vain. We have to fight for her and envision her and the work. And if it is a situation where this is just a bad seed, then that's what it is. Like he said, we got situations that's been coming in to us that's crazy and I and I let the chief know that. So I will definitely love to work with the community.

I'm definitely gonna be digging into this. I've been digging into this. I can read, write, do curriculum. I I can teach it, but this one I'm I know I can't do. I wanna make sure that we're putting our officers in the best situation possible within impoverished communities, black communities, and make sure that this does not happen anymore. First of all, it's costing the city too much. Our financials are trash and if we have to keep paying out for for situations like this, I don't want to. So, thank you so much, councilman Hobbs, for sharing this. This is this was a good and thank you, community, for coming out. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, chairman Hobbs. And I'm not a regular member of this committee. I appreciate the opportunity to comment not once, but twice. I I just have to say, my wife and I, every night, because of this condition of the sidewalks in the old West End where we live, every night we jaywalk, every night. When we take our little baby boy on a walk because the stroller, it bounces around too much, and he's too heavy to carry.

So we put him in the stroller, and we walk in the street every night. And I know and I'm not sure I don't wanna comment too much about what happened in the video because I I think it's important to let the investigation take place. That's fine. What I will say is, I I think, yeah, it's evocative of the, of the Malcolm Gladwell, book Talking With Strangers and and the incident that took place with Sandra Bland when

she was

killed. Well, when she died in custody. Excuse me. In in the sense that I it was clear to me what what took place with the with the mother in the video is she was afraid. And I think that's really what she was conveying.

And maybe it looked like noncompliance, but to but to me, as I watch it, she was scared. I can tell you as as a parent now, but also unfortunately having to watch my mom and dad bury their son last year, it's the worst fear you can imagine, losing your child. And I think that's all that's taking place in that video is that that mother is afraid. We've got to have the cultural sensitivities and the understanding as human beings, let alone people who are entrusted with public safety, we've got to have the understanding to be able to know that and act at the level that situation deserves. I will say again, I don't want to comment too much about the video, but, you know, we'll let the investigation play out, and then we'll see what happens after that.

We there I do feel like there there have been some situations that have taken place that make me think maybe there's some processes on our end that need to change regardless what happens with the investigation. Jaywalking is something I think about. Miss Gibson and mister Morris brought it up when they the first two speakers today. There's a lot of communities that are either getting rid of their jaywalking laws or decriminalizing them because of the over reliance for pretextual stops, something I think worth looking into. And then obviously the civilian police review board, the 12 of us need to

have a real

conversation about the status of that organization and and how we move that forward. But I do wanna thank the chief and deputy chief for being here and hanging in there. This is a tough conversation, but I appreciate the comments from the community because it was a necessary one. And I hope that all of us can do better moving forward. Thank you.

To all of our council members, thank you to our chief and deputy chief. Thank you to our community. Thank you to our media. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.