When 150 people met from Orlando Faith United Church, JUMP Ministries, and New Life Fellowship African American churches June 18 (at approximately the same time as the Charleston murders were committed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church), tension was high. Reports of Noel Carter repeated beating by Orlando Police Department were headline news, and members of JUMP Ministries had had police recently enter their church with guns drawn. People want police violence stopped; want to know what to do when stopped, and want to know what their rights are.
Orange County Sector Commander Joe Picanzo described deputy stop procedures in two forms. When suspicion of illegal activity is seen by the officer, or even thinking there is a violation, the officer has full investigative power, and the citizen must comply with any reasonable requests. If the officer is threatened or feels threatened, he has authority to use deadly force. He urged anyone under investigation to cooperate fully, “Don’t pick your fight with an officer on the street. Do it filing a complaint afterwards.” Picanzo also clarified that when an officer is talking to someone to get information, the officer needs to get permission to ask questions, and one can refuse, in this case, to talk. Defense attorney Celine Cannon agreed with Picanzo and described our constitutional rights: Article 4 not allowing a police search without a warrant, and Article 6 protecting an individual from questioning without an attorney.
The issue, of course, is too few people know and understand police procedure or their rights. Most in the room were hearing this in detail for the first time. If we are to lower the temperature between community and police, it must start with widespread understanding of police authority and citizens rights. The other piece to build community law enforcement relationships is to take concrete steps to work together. The churches presented Picanzo with a list of steps to strengthen community relationships:
- Residents have a negative relationship with law enforcement because they usually only encounter in a police incident. Work with us to have your deputies in this sector build a community engagement plan, especially holding community events involving youth and sports.
- We are not recruiting enough deputies that from the community and deputies that understand their racial bias. Recommend to Sheriff Demmings review the existing recruiting policies of OCSO and create policies that will recruit qualified persons to become deputies that come from the community, and are not restricted by arbitrary regulations such as previous traffic violations.
- OCSO salaries are not completive with other jurisdictions. We are losing qualifies deputies. Recommend to Sheriff Demmings to make salaries competitive.
Picanzo will recommend all three and set up a meeting with Sheriff Demmings.
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