MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon City Council promised action regarding police reform without directly addressing the issue at its meeting Monday.
Only one member of the council, Tanner Salyers, used the term “police reform.”
Councilmember Samantha Scoles held an employee and community relations committee meeting under the title of “Update on City Responses to Emails and Public Participation During Council Meetings” and promised that action is being taken. However, she did not say exactly what direction that action is taking, or for what.
Speaking with the News following the meeting, Scoles said she didn’t specifically address police reform because she believes reforms need to be applied to all city employees — not just police. The city and council have been discussing the creation of a human resources director position, and having an HR director’s oversight would be a move toward accountability, she said.
Salyers, speaking at the end of the meeting, used the term “police reform” as he stated that city government works slowly. Councilmember Tammy Woods said there are “multiple things” council is working on, and that “thoughtful actions... to make Mount Vernon better” are ongoing, but also did not say those things involved police reform.
During the citizen’s comments portion of the meeting, city resident Franklin Walker said council was presented with proposed ordinances for police reform laws nine weeks ago, and that he reads council’s “lack of action (as a) lack of interest.”
Also during citizen’s comments, Christina Hambleton, who is a member of Knox County Action for Equality, offered that there are flaws in the police department’s current policies. Hambleton said that accountability is limited due to police supervisors having control over defining misconduct; that MVPD collects bias data, but it is not made public; and said that policies of arrest quotas are the primary means of judging officer performance. She offered that the PD needs to assign specific consequences for every kind of officer misconduct; go to a policy of using citation in lieu of arrest for low-level offenses, and make clearer guidelines for use of force, traffic stops and street stops.
Also at Monday’s meeting, Mount Vernon Police Chief Robert Morgan proposed the idea of hiring a full-time licensed social worker (LSW) for the police department. The LSW would respond with officers to calls where they could assist with de-escalation and mental health issues. The idea is to get individuals in a mental health crisis the help they need immediately, rather than being arrested and taken to jail where they may not get help until several days later.
Morgan suggested Megan McKee for the job, an LSW who is completing her doctorate thesis on a “mobile crisis program.” McKee spent nine months with MVPD as part of her research for the thesis, Morgan said.