The mayor’s public safety diversity effort will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Commission Chambers, lobby level, City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kan.
According to information from the mayor’s office, the Mayor’s Public Safety Recruitment Task Force and the Department of Justice are seeking public comments about diversity in recruiting public safety officers such as police officers and firefighters.
“Our Task Force meetings have generated thoughtful discussion and innovative ideas,” Mayor Holland said in a news release. “Now we need to hear from our residents. It is imperative their input is heard and considered as we move forward.”
The goal of the task force is to form an action plan by April 2015 that includes steps to guide Unified Government Commissioners and administration to improve diversity in public safety recruitment.
One of the members of the task force, human rights activist Alvin Sykes, said, “Certainly, the actions that the mayor has initiated in this regard should help achieve that growth in police and firemen being hired as well as being promoted from within.”
He said he was happy to see that recent promotions in the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department included black officers and “that was a step in the right direction.”
Diversity also applies to females, there are only about four black females in the Police Department, and something should be done to increase that percentage as well as the percentage of other minorities being hired and promoted, Sykes said.
The public hearing on diversity will take place at the start of the Unified Government Commission meeting at 7 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast on UGTV (Time Warner Channel 98-2, Google Fiber Channel 141 and WOW Channel 25) and will be archived on the Unified Government’s YouTube Channel. More information is on the UG’s website at www.wycokck.org.