Decatur’s police department completed its three-year strategic plan with Chief Mike Booker giving a summation before city commissioners earlier this week. This plan is independent from the recently-completed community action plan which, in part, calls for “racially just community policing.”
Booker told commissioners the police plan includes a series of “anti-racial profiling policies,” and goes in depth outlining the relationships between the community and police.
“Twenty percent of what we do, we deal with crime,” Booker said. “But 80 percent is community relations. When we hire an officer we’re looking for someone who is empathetic to people’s needs.”
Booker, Decatur chief since 2006, said he’s been working on the plan for the past year, and with the help of consultants held 24 separate focus groups from March through September.
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