Alejandro Camacho, LETI's Community News Intern reflects on the Summit On Police Culture.

The Summit On Police Culture was hosted June 29th, 2024 at the Carl Gipson Center in Everett Washington. The purpose of The Summit On Police Culture is to bring together a group of law enforcement, community advocates for police accountability and state legislators to begin ongoing dialogue on how we can change police culture that focuses on saving lives of both the community & law enforcement by building trust in our communities.

UNIDOS was able to create a safe environment for people to come together and learn from different perspectives. It is time to begin educating both the community and law enforcement different ways to engage and interact with each other. We want people to be able to have conversations at the same table and not be afraid to ask questions. We acknowledge the land we are on with an opening speech by Rev Paul Benz, who reminded us of the importance of coming together in one place and learning from each other.

Juan Peralez, President of Unidos, welcomed all, “We must embrace the idea of partnership with the police, in order to change the police culture, & determine different ways to change the culture and safety in police culture.”. Juan Peralez challenged each other to create conversations on ways we can change police culture in our communities. Juan Peralez invites all of us across the United States to create change where the community can learn and engage with law enforcement, and how the law enforcement can learn how to deescalate a situation in their community by learning best ways to support and engage in their own community.

At the Summit On Police Culture there were community right advocates and relatives of people that were killed in the custody of a police officer. Who shared with us stories of times when they experienced a relative die in the custody of law enforcement. There was also a Question & Answer session after every guest that was open to the public. Washington State Senator Manka Dhingra shared the importance of treating people with more compassion. We also had Senator John Lovick (former sheriff) and Snohomish County Sheriff Susana Johnson, former police chief - Betty Frizzell, current police chief John DeRousse, and Algona police chief - Dave Schrimpsher. Along with Author Attorney Jessica Pishko who recently released a book called "The Highest law in the land", and more guests.

The community demands oversight and accountability for law enforcement, there needs to be multiple action plans to reduce police violence and increase community engagement events.
When collecting data on deaths and death of inmates in custody of law enforcement. Talking about your civil rights, eliminating police brutality, and officers who aren't properly trained to serve in their community. It's important to understand that “Their ability to have access to the most vulnerable people is dangerous, dehumanizing them, and acting aggressively towards them for no reason. Our people in the streets are not safe.“ We need to build relationships,
Having the community get more involved and aware of police training, that's one way we can help change the culture, by learning from your community and understanding you are protected.
That's one way we can begin shifting our actions.

Law enforcement get their power and authority from our community, it's important to serve with integrity. We need to hold people accountable, and create better training systems to improve officer retention, training, hiring, and community engagement. We need to engage with others to improve our communities. It's our responsibility to get rid of those folks that abuse their power and misconduct. Mistakes can happen along the way, that's why it's important to listen to our community so we can best serve people. As we continue to learn how to best serve our communities. We invite all our community to talk about different ways we can improve our communities.