(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

By Kathy Wray Coleman (Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email : editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The City of Cleveland Community Relations Board, led by director Blaine Griffin (pictured), in cooperation with the Cleveland Division of Police, will host the first of two community round table discussions on police body cameras on Tuesday, January 27 at 7 pm at the Harvard Community Services Center, 18240 Harvard Avenue. The second meeting is Wednesday evening, January 28 at the Covenant Community Church in Cleveland, 3342 East 119th Street.

Others expected to attend today's meeting include Fourth District Commander Deon McCaulley, and Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed, who pushed for the body cameras that record video and audio after community activists demanded them, and in turn with other cities experimenting with them, including Louisville, KY, Albuquerque, NM, New Orleans, LA, Salt Lake City, UT, Oakland, CA and Ft. Worth, TX.

Terrell Pruitt is also a host of  the forum as councilman of Ward 1, the city's strongest Black voting block of any of its 17  wards, and the testing ground for sound discussion on controversial policy issues impacting the largely Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland, a city of roughly 400, 000 people.

The Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, the union for police patrolmen, prefers dash cams over the cameras, and police are  in conflict with some city councilpersons who, like community activists, want the cameras on and operating at all possible times.

Cleveland police have ordered body cameras for its roughly 1,500 officers per a city ordinance adopted by city council last year, and growing concerns over police killings of unarmed Blacks.

Elaine Gohlstin, president and CEO of the Harvard Community Services Center, told Cleveland Urban News.Com that the forum is open to the public.

"Community activists will be there,'" said Ada Averyhart, 81,  a longtime community activist who supports the body cameras and like other activists wants them on and working at all times possible, especially when police come into the Black community.

A U.S. Department of Justice report issued last year found systemic problems in the largely White police department,including a pattern of excessive force and mistreatment of the mentally ill.

Late last year police gunned down 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was Black, at a public park on the city's west side, claiming a toy pellet gun might have been real, and though police dispatchers were told that it was likely a fake pellet gun.

Community protests continue over the controversial killing, and other questionable police killings, and racial unrest continues to mount.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)