SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Following Black Lives Matter protests across the country and here in Maine, the City of South Portland is taking action.
“We are not immune in this city,” city councilor Deqa Dhalac said.
Dhalac is leading an effort to redistribute police funds to create a first-of-its-kind commission in Maine designed to root out systemic racism in the department and across municipal entities.
The commission would examine current trends and data and then find ways to improve practices that unfairly impact people of color.
“We want to make sure that people of color like myself and like my son, who has been stopped by South Portland police multiple times, to say I feel safe in my city,” Dhalac said. “So that's the work of this council that's the work that we're trying to do by making sure that each and every citizen in the city feel safe whether they're Black or white."
According to statistics shared by city officials, Black people make up 3.8 percent of South Portland’s population but account for 16.1 percent of the department’s arrests and summonses.
Police Chief Timothy Sheehan said he supported the creation of the commission in a seven-hour long meeting about the police budget Tuesday.
“We’re always looking at ways to do better,” Sheehan said in the meeting. “I welcome working with them as far as that's concerned and how the statistics break down and why they look the way that they do.”
City councilors and officials reviewed more than $500,000 of the police department’s $5.1 million budget in that meeting.
According to Dhalac, at least $25,000 in overtime funding is being set aside to form the commission.
"Time the talk the talk has ended it's time to walk to walk the walk we are doing it,” Dhalac said.
Councilors are expected to discuss how to further develop the commission and other efforts to combat racism in a meeting next Tuesday.