The City of Wilmington Reparations Task Force wants to see changes from city police.
The task force released a report March 27 detailing historical injustices and recommendations for the city.
One area of focus was policing. Wilmington ranks in the top five most heavily policed cities in the U.S., according to The Center Square.
After advising City Council formally apologize for the injustices Black Wilmington residents have faced, the first recommended change was to mandate bias-free policing policies and training.
But task force chair Councilmember Coby Owens said they want to see changes beyond training to improve interactions between police and the communities they serve.
“It's a disconnect between the community and the officers,” Owens said. “The officers may not be properly trained to be engaging with certain demographics of the City of Wilmington, and this is why we push so heavily to have a reflective police force in our city as well, too. And that starts by having a more intentional recruitment for diversity and for homegrown talent as well.”
The disconnect shows up in arrests and incarceration. Black people make up almost 87 percent of those receiving prison sentences for drug offenses in Delaware, with most being from Wilmington, according to the task force’s report.
Yet, for example, marijuana use is roughly equal among Black and white people, according to the ACLU. Over-policing Black and brown communities in Wilmington has severely impacted peoples’ lives, Owens said.
“One of the issues that we found was you were more likely to be sentenced to a longer term if you had drugs or a gun charge in the City of Wilmington than if you were out in one of our sister cities: Newark, Middletown,” Owens said.
Implementing bias training is just a starting point for improved policing, Owens added.
“But we also want it to be reflective of someone who looks like our community, someone who has been in our community. You can read stuff on paper all day long, but if you have no lived experience in Black and brown communities, it is very hard for you to teach how people will interact in that way.”
The task force is no longer active, but City Council accepted its report in its 108th session. One of the report’s recommendations was for City Council to establish the task force as a permanent government corporation to continue monitoring the city.
