Amid recent controversies over police shootings from Perrine to Pompano Beach, local officers are out to promote peace with the people they serve.
The topic of the discussion in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday: when is it appropriate for an officer to use force?
"It's based on an officer's perception at the time of the incident. In a lot of people in the public when we go out and we have these discussions with groups they don't realize that,” said former Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley. “But what an officer perceives at that particular moment determines what their next action would be."
Sometimes those actions are wrong, the 36-year police veteran acknowledged – adding that in those cases “it's one of those things where we have to hold people accountable."
Florida Atlantic University Interim Police Chief Sean Brammer noted how one officer's bad actions can spoil relations for many more – and he's trying to change the thinking on that.
"We have to have continued dialogue,” Brammer said. “One of the things we have to do is we have to have more meetings than this. What we get from here we have to take back to our own areas, and we have to have these conversations."
