Clarksville holds forum on race relations and policing

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Clarksvillenow.com Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan hosted a Community Discussion Monday that brought around 175 people to the Wilma Rudolph Event Center. The topic of discussion was race relations and policing in the city.

Clarksville Police Chief Al Ansley, NAACP President Jimmie Garland, and Pastor Willie Freeman with the Clarksville Coalition of Concerned Citizens joined McMillan as they made comments and responded to questions from those attending the forum.

Diversity and de-escalation were two of the many topics that Chief Ansley spoke about. On diversity, Ansley said they are trying to recruit more minority applicants to be Clarksville Police Officers. He added the department needs to be more diversified but minorities aren’t applying for the jobs.

“As far as de-escalation goes, we are in the process right no of implementing or changing our use of force policy, de-escalation training will be a large part of that,” Ansley. The Chief also made petitions available for signing Monday that he plans to take to the city council and ask to be able to apply for a grant to pay for body cameras for officers.

Garland talked about the importance of Monday’s forum. “A community that is forward thinking enough to try to address this in the advance of an incident is a community that is worthy of people to be a part of and to try to make a difference,” said Garland.

Garland added that is what we are trying to do here tonight, to make a difference for the people of this community, for the people of this state and also to show that Clarksville and Montgomery County can be a role model for the nation and get this right.

The Mayor announced an email address that the city has made available to citizens if they have questions about race relations, policing, or other issues. The email is oneclarksville@cityofclarksville.com and it is solely for addressing issues in the city.

Monday night’s session was in response to police shootings taking place in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge and it is the first in a series of forums planned for the coming months in Clarksville.

The Clarksville Coalition of Concerned Citizens have scheduled a similar community meeting this Friday, July 22 at 7:00 p.m. at Greater Missionary Baptist Church, 450 Ringgold Road.