100 signatures reached
To: Tampa City Council
Support the Restorative Cultural Competency Ordinance
City Council, we, the people, hereby sign in support of the Restorative Justice Coalition's Cultural Competency ordinance* in which will:
*Ensure first responders receive specific and necessary, and extended, training for their role.
*Ensure all City employees receive implicit bias training.
*Ensure an outside organization is selected to conduct this training and write this curriculum, more specifically a minority lead organization when possible.
*Ensure that the training is comprehensive.
*Ensure that the training will discuss anti-bias, anti-discrimination and cultural competency pertaining to: race, sex, religion or national origin, sexual
orientation, color, pregnancy, age, marital status, familial status, disability, gender
identification, genetic information, ethnicity, or any other basis as prohibited by law
or ordinances.
*Comply with the requirements of the Charter Amendment WE THE PEOPLE approved by 75%
*(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jazQVJxDJqaIKZF6wutX1jsF52BCK1VxZ1at4lsCpKE/edit?usp=sharing)
Why is this important?
The City of Tampa's racial record shows that Black people, who only make up 26% of the City population, account for 54% of the arrests within the City. This is wrong! Black people are NOT more likely than white people to commit crimes, yet are continually patrolled and monitored at higher volumes. Further, bias causes Black people to be mistreated and in the worst of scenarios, costs them their freedom or their lives. Other groups, such as gay and trans people, immigrants and the disabled, also face disparate treatment in many ways, and the problem only compounds when someone lives in multiple identities.
The City spoke up in 2018 when the Policing Project survey was completed. We said we want bias training. ([bit.ly/tpapp0318])
We spoke up again in March 2019 when 75% of us voted in favor of the Restorative Justice Coalition's charter amendment to implement bias and cultural competency training. (. [https://enr.electionsfl.org/HIL/2083/Summary/]
And we are speaking now when we say we want this training to be robust, comprehensive and thorough. We acknowledge this is ONLY a beginning in working toward the equity and justice we envision in our City--there is still so much work to do. But we know this will lead us into the right direction.
Please, City Council, support this model ordinance and listen to the people!