One of the most interesting things I learned in college didn’t come from the classroom; it came from my need to survive.
Like many college students before me, I needed resources to live, so focus groups became one of my hobbies. I was just amazed at how the business community could use a focus group as a market resource tool to find out information. Gathering people from different backgrounds and intentionally wanting to know their thoughts and wanting to provide them a voice regarding a particular product or service, in my opinion, was phenomenal.
This is why innovation doesn’t surprise me in the business sector because it is continually providing its consumers of voice and using those voices to consistently show up bigger, better, brighter, and bolder. These experiences made me appreciate a good question and was the reason I began to love facilitation.
As an adult, I find myself pondering, “Why don’t we treat the community like consumers when it comes to social justice?” Why don’t we give the community a voice and ask them what they need? I don’t have the answer to that question.
Still, I am thrilled to see the Aurora City Council discussing a focus group-like process to provide the Aurora residents a voice and to deliver some innovation into the products we have come to know as law enforcement and social justice.
Quite frankly, it’s time for the Aurora Police Department to be bigger, better, brighter and bolder. The lived experience for people of color, especially as relates to the social justice practices of Aurora, is inequitable, and the practices associated with those in social justice service roles are grossly inconsistent.
The resolution creating a task force on community and police issues is a step in the right direction. Bringing together a broad group of residents and organizations with varying experiences with the police department to study and make recommendations to existing police operations and the community and police relationships is long overdue.
Some tremendous professionals work within the city, but only the community, the consumer of this product, can genuinely provide the market research to ensure that Aurora, one of the most diverse cities in America, is a city where EVERYONE can live, work, play, and THRIVE.
What I have come to appreciate the most about the current resolution is that the City Council is recognizing:
1) Critical incidents demonstrate that there is a lack of accountability, transparency, and no real communication between the police and community.
2) The community has lacked a voice and needs a vehicle to communicate directly to the council what’s happening and more importantly what needs to happen moving forward.
3) The proposed makeup of the task force which will include individuals that range from those having a felony background to someone actively serving as a police officer and everyone in between. I especially like that the police will have a representative on this task force. It’s time for them to hear and understand how the community feels.
It’s refreshing to see community meetings being built upon and manifesting into a vehicle for change. It’s time to do better by the citizens of Aurora, and I am thrilled to see an intentional community-based task force being stood up to lead the way! The final caveat will be the city council accepting the community’s recommendations and acting with intention and timeliness to implement the policy and cultural changes that will make Aurora a city where everyone thrives.
— Ryan Ross, PhD President and CEO, Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado