The Norman Police Department has established a Diversity and Equity Committee devoted to promoting inclusion in the force and improve how it serves the community, per a March 3 press release.
Lt. Lee McWhorter said in an interview with the Daily that the committee — 15 civilian and commissioned personnel — meets once a month to discuss any topics of diversity and inclusion so the NPD can better communicate within the force and the community, and to address “internal communication, education and evaluation of our department efforts.”
McWhorter said the idea for creating the committee came early in 2020 in response to community feedback. Listening to the criticism, McWhorter said he and a group of officers brought the idea to executive staff, and the committee was made official by a general order in June. In the press release, NPD announced the establishment of positions and chair members, and provided an email address for community members to reach out to in order to voice their concerns.
“We have heard a lot from voices that feel like they are not heard in our community. We want them to know that they are heard and that we are doing our best to understand and educate ourselves so that we can better serve them. … Over the last year or so, we've gotten even more feedback from certain groups that they feel like we are not doing that and we aren’t committed to doing so. And so that was part of the hope with this committee, that we can help bridge that gap a little bit.”
McWhorter said the group plans to examine how the NPD can better respond to hate crimes and have regular discussions with the community. McWhorter said the goal is to incorporate these discussions into educating officers and keeping protocol up to date.
In May 2020, the NPD announced it was conducting an internal investigation over officer Jacob McDonough’s use of a screenshot from the movie Django Unchained comparing facial masks to the masks used by members of the Ku Klux Klan. NPD’s investigation found McDonough’s actions resulted in “a sustained allegation of violation of department policy.”
In the same month, the Norman Collective for Racial Justice revoked its endorsement of Mayor Breea Clark, saying she didn’t take strong enough action to address the incident. In the same statement, it called for implicit bias training for all city employees facilitated by people of color.
“We work on education internally,” McWhorter said. “We review what we're teaching, both in the academy and what we teach on a line level, to make sure that training is both current and up to date.”
The creation of this committee is the latest addition to inclusivity efforts within the city. In January, the Norman city government named Cinthya Allen as its first chief diversity and equity officer, citing her work in diversity and inclusion programs.
To create transparency and to acknowledge changes needed to better police a community, McWhorter said the committee is a step in the right direction.
“We're public servants, and we signed up to this for this job to serve our community,” McWhorter said. “And so the last thing anybody wants to hear is that people think they aren't doing what they signed up to do. So it's very important to us because we want to serve our community, and we want to do it in a way that makes everyone feel heard and understood and that they're receiving the best possible service that we can provide them.”
