Community group seeks to build better relationship with Columbus police

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — Six Columbus community members are working together to be the voice of Columbus residents to Columbus police leadership.

The group is called the Chief’s Advisory Panel, and it’s goal is to build better communication and relationships between police and the community.

Members said the group has been in the works for a while now. The division actually established the panel in 2020 under previous leadership. However, members said they feel the launch of this new and improved panel represents more areas of the community and can really create positive change for the division.

“I think their desire is to be better,” said panelist and pastor at City of Grace Church Michael Young.

The group will be able to bring concerns and ideas directly to Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant. They will also review policies and share opinions about what needs to change or improve.

“I think that CPD, the past two or three years have been very transparent with us, but I think that now it’s time for us to take things and next level,” said panelist Daizhon Cox. “And that’s why now we’re fully doing the full launch with the advisory panel to be able to let the community know exactly who we are.”

There are six people who currently make up the new Columbus Police Chief’s Advisory Panel. They all come from different backgrounds:

• Daizhon Cox: The Ohio State University student
• Michael Young: Pastor at City of Grace Church
• Toni Cunningham: Workforce development
• David Fluellen: Founder and CEO of Urban Family Development
• La’Quisa Richardson: Founder and CEO of ACE Community House
• James Burke: Photographer

Cox, who grew up on the south side of Columbus, said he is excited to represent the young people in the community. He said a lot of issues the city is currently facing does involve young people and he will be able to go straight to the source.

“I’m committed to be able to hear the voices of the students and me being a student and be able to take it back to Bryant to be able to say, you know what do we need more officers patrolling in that area,” Cox said.

Pastor Young said in his role he sees people who have gone through different troubles.

“So, people have already found a safe space coming to us,” Young said. “Speaking in an alternate way about some of the plights that our people have in this city. And what my assignment is, is to carry that to the chief and her team and find ways and strategies and suggest ideas. Why not just bring in complaints, but bring ideas on how they can do better and we can make a better city?”

The hope is each person will bring different ideas and represent every kind of person here in the City of Columbus.

“I think that that’s one thing that every person on this panel has a common goal with, you know, is that we want to be able to see everyone do well,” Cox said. “We want to see crime go down. We want to be able to see, you know, community back interacting with policing.”

Young said during the monthly meetings the chief will go over crime statistics with the panel. He said she will be there to explain why certain things happened the way they did.

“Some of the other things that they do, which I think is incredibly important, is they share with us some heroic moments that some of the officers have,” Young said. “I think it’s important for us to understand that police officers are human beings as well. And we don’t ever want to broad it with just a very, very broad brush, paint it with a very broad brush, that because of content change, because of a certain individuals actions, that all police officers fall into that category.”

The panelists said they want residents to come to them with concerns and ideas. They hope to be the voice of the everyday person and they will have a direct line to the chief.

NBC4 asked them if they feel like they are comfortable standing up to the chief when things they see are not okay.

“Yes, we definitely do,” Cox said. “I think that that’s one thing. That’s a part of being a panel member is that you are able to voice their concerns and to Chief Bryant and First Assistant Chief Potts, they definitely hear our concerns. Allow us to be able to be that voice, to be able to go to the CPD leadership team and to be able let them know, hey, you know, we don’t like this. Hey, you know what? This isn’t okay, right?”

The panelist say they are still looking for more people to join the group. For more information on how to apply, go to their social media pages at “614 Chief Advisory Panel.”

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