About 100 people attend a Police-Community Relations Committee town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Peoria Civic Center. The Committee, The Peoria Black Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP hosted the conversation with the purpose of a dialogue.
Peoria Police Chief Jerry Mitchell says, “At the end of the day, when I am done with this job I am still going to live here. So it’s important that what happens in Ferguson doesn’t happen here. So what ever that means that we have to do as a committee as a community, that is what we have to do!”
But Pastor Harvey Burnett says the statistics on poverty and joblessness in Peoria’s 61605 zip code are ripe for problems. “We cannot deal with this particular problem without dealing with the whole thing! We must deal with education. We must deal with economics.”
Police body cameras are one consideration, but the state eavesdropping law must be adjusted before that can be legal and such an investment is worthwhile. Those at the meeting also talked about more mentoring for youth, and improving education and job opportunities within the African American Community.