The Community Challenge
Tensions were already high in the City of Tempe after several high-profile police shootings when another incident, this time where a 14 year old Mexican teen was shot and killed after running away from an officer carrying a toy replica gun, the community demanded answers. When body camera footage of the incident was released, it triggered protests and increased already inflamed tensions between law enforcement and the public. Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel cleared the Tempe Officer of any criminal wrongdoing. Despite not facing criminal charges, an administrative review by Tempe police found that the officer violated training and department policies and procedures when he shot the teen while he ran away. The City of Tempe contacted The Community Armor Project to formulate a way to begin the healing process between the community and the Tempe Police Department.
The Community Armor Approach
The goal was to improve the police department’s relationship with the community by starting the long and difficult process of rebuilding the trust between the community and the Tempe Police Department. A year long Community Conversation series, “Tempe Listens” was formed with the goal of having productive conversations about policing and other areas of concern.
The Community Armor Project was asked to facilitate the form to ensure that it was a vast contrast to what has seen come out of many other City and Town forums where everyone leaves feeling like nothing was accomplished and it was a yelling match and not a conversation.
In addition, the City of Tempe is also participating alongside five other cities across the country in a national effort from the National League of Cities (NLC) to examine response to incidents involving racial tension and make critical improvements for the future.
Impact on the Community
The “Tempe Listens” conversations were kicked off in March of 2020. There were some hard hitting questions posed by the community, ranging from specifics on some of the police shootings and other use-of-force policies and changes, to questions about police community surveillance and surveillance technology such as the controversial “Stingray”. Despite a few rocky moments, the majority of the community in attendance left feeling like they were actually heard and acknowledged and looked forward to some of the follow-up items to come from the event as well as the next event.
