Dear Mayor Ricky Shelton,

We are residents of the City of Cookeville, TN. We are writing to you today to demand that you, as the mayor of our city, ensure that the law enforcement officers are not abusing their power and to demand that they are held accountable for their actions.

After witnessing the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, we have been left feeling outraged, frustrated, and hurt. The system has failed yet another black man and we are anxiously waiting to see if the officers responsible for his death will face consequences.

However, the senseless murder of George Floyd is the tip of the iceberg; we also are mourning the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, and countless others who have died due to police brutality.

As residents of Cookeville, we want to make sure that the local police department is taking the necessary preventative measures to ensure that incidents like this will not occur in the future. So we, the signers of this petition, demand that:

1. The police officers in the Cookeville Police Department be trained to de-escalate altercations by using peaceful conflict resolution strategies.

2. The police officers in the Cookeville Police Department be forbidden from using carotid restraints (chokeholds, strangleholds, etc.) and hog-tying methods. These means of restraint constitute excessive force. Furthermore, forbid them from transporting civilians in uncomfortable positions, such as face down in a vehicle.

3. The officers in the Cookeville Police Department be forbidden from use of excessive force; excessive force is never appropriate or justified, this is what makes it ‘excessive.’

4. The police officers in the Cookeville Police Department be required to intervene if they witness another officer using excessive force. Also, have officers be reprimanded if they fail to intervene.

5. The police officers in the Cookeville Police Department be forbidden from shooting at moving vehicles.

6. The officers have a clear and enforced use-of-force continuum that details what weapons and force are acceptable in a wide variety of civilian-police interactions. A policy such as the Model Use of Force Policy presented by Campaign Zero should be consulted.

7. The officers in the Cookeville Police Department be required to give a verbal warning to civilians before drawing their weapon or using lethal force.

8. The officers in the Cookeville Police Department be required to report each time they threaten to or use force on civilians.

9. The officers in the Cookeville Police Department be thoroughly vetted prior to employment to ensure that they do not have a history with abuse, racism, xenophobia, homophobia/transphobia, or discrimination.

10. The officers in the Cookeville Police Department be trained to perform and seek necessary medical action after using lethal force.

11. There be an early intervention system enforced to correct officers who use excessive force. Additionally, adjust the number of complaints an officer must receive before they are reprimanded or subsequently terminated. More than three complaints are unacceptable.

Statistics have indicated that by enforcing these policies, there is a significant decrease in civilian complaints and injury due to excessive force. If any of the policies are not currently in place, then what is being done to ensure that they are going to be enforced in the near future? What can we do, as concerned citizens, to set these policies in motion?

We also want to increase the level of trust between the police department and the community. To establish trust, there has to be transparency. We demand that the Cookeville Police Department collect and report data on civilian deaths that occurred in custody and as a result of an officer’s use of excessive force. The data should be broken down by demographics and should showcase the race, gender, sexuality, and religion of the civilians. Allowing the public access to this information will show us where we, as a community, fall short.

We are not simply asking for a passing glance at these policies, but demanding the reform of them as well as our law enforcement system on the local level.
Thank you for your time and we hope that we can work together to protect the Cookeville community. We refuse to let the next hashtag come from our community.

Sincerely,

Residents of the City of Cookeville and signers of this petition