Former Decatur school board member Don Denard recently asked the city commission for “better training” of the city’s police department in “dealing with the subconscious level of racism.”
Denard, a board member from 1990 to 1997, claims to have been racially profiled by police on Dec. 15, 2013. In the months since the city has begun creating a “community action plan,” charged with tackling a broad spectrum of diversity issues, including racial, economic, age and disabilities. But Denard also wants a more specific focus.
“We want [police to get] professional development,” he said. “We’ve treated the surface level of racism in this country, but now we have to go deep, where the real action is. It’s very complicated, all the more reason to look at how other police departments are handling these [profiling] issues.”
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