Members of Springfield Police, along with Chief Paul Williams met with Springfield NAACP President Toni Robinson and board members after the city’s NAACP chapter issued three demands to city council.
Those demands were to ban choke holds or any form of neck restraint, reducing the disparity index, and reform the police civilian review board.
No decision has been made on any of the demands but each were discussed and follow up talks are planned.
Below are more details with a press release…
On Thursday, July 23, 2020, Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams and members of SPD command staff met with Springfield NAACP President Toni Robinson and NAACP board members. The meeting was scheduled as a result of the three demands from the NAACP issued to City Council on July 13, 2020:
- Ban VNR/chokeholds or any form of neck restraint
- Reduce the disparity index to 1
- Reform the Police Civilian Review Board (PCRB)
Each of those demands were discussed and while no decisions were made, SPD and the NAACP agreed to continue to meet regarding items 1 and 2. As to item 3, the PCRB was established by City Council and is outside the purview of the police department. Plans were discussed for the NAACP to speak with City Council about that concern
A list of 22 questions were also submitted to SPD by the NAACP and Chief Paul Williams responded to each of them. The questions and answers were discussed in great detail at the meeting—and follow up talks are being planned. A link to the questions, along with a brief summary of the answers provided by SPD, are in a link below.
“At SPD we value, appreciate and respect our relationship with the Springfield NAACP. We are working to create greater trust in the community and show the citizens of Springfield that we are doing all we can to help them feel safe,” said Chief Williams.
