NAACP to discuss racial insensitivity complaints with Grand Prairie officials

by Kirk Dickey of of Grand Prairie TODAY

State and local NAACP officials hope to meet with local city leaders in the next few weeks in an effort to resolve complaints from minority Grand Prairie police officers and residents.

The meetings are an extension of a closed-door meeting with the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service organized by Grand Prairie Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held Oct. 11. In the meeting, organizers said, seven Grand Prairie police officers and some residents outlined what they believe is a pattern of racially-insensitive behavior.

Members of the media were barred from the meeting, as were the president of the Grand Prairie Police Association Heath Wester and Sgt. Kenneth Lee, who investigates citizen complaints against police officers.

Grand Prairie NAACP Chapter President Angela Luckey said the meeting was closed to allow people to speak freely without fear of reprisal from superiors in the police department.

Although Luckey did not speak to specific incidents, she said the issues raised concerned discriminatory practices in the department, as well as complaints by residents.

Residents from the Dalworth area of Grand Prairie spoke about an excessive use of electrical restraining devices or “tazers,” Luckey said.

“Some of the officers stated that you don't hear about a lot of the tazing in the southern sector that you do in the Dalworth community,” Luckey said.

And Luckey added that officers said there were disparities between the disciplinary measures taken against white officers and black officers.

One of the residents who spoke at the meeting, Ollie Daley, a past-president of the Grand Prairie NAACP, spoke to Grand Prairie Today after leaving the meeting. He said he had been a victim of discrimination earlier this year, when he refused to pay full price for work he said a contractor failed to do. When the contractor threatened to call the police with a “theft of service” complaint, Daley said he called instead. And when an officer responded to the call, the officer told him he would be arrested if he did not pay.

Daley said he believed the incident was racially-influenced.

“They robbed me,” he said. “I don't think that was fair.”

Daley continued, saying that he filed a grievance against the officer but has not gotten a response from the police department regarding the complaint.

“There is no accountability as far as when a police officer abuses his authority and a citizen attempts to file a complaint,” he said, adding that he believed the city should institute a police review board where citizens' complaints could be heard. “If you have an internal investigation, that is the police investigating themselves, and how often are (they) going to say they did something wrong?”

He intimated that the department does not always investigate complaints against officers.

After the meeting, Luckey said that there had been a discussion about Lee, who is African-American, regarding his handling of internal investigations. She said citizens are being denied the right to file complaints or that when they call back to get reports after they have been filed, there are no reports there.

“There were a lot of concerns from the community and from the officers themselves about Internal Affairs,” Luckey said. “They feel there is some unfairness or some things that are being done inappropriately with Sgt. Kenneth Lee.”

For his part, Lee said that he could not comment on internal investigations, but that all complaints and investigations are handled fairly and equally, without regard to race.

Luckey said that the NAACP will request meetings with police and city officials. Texas NAACP First Vice President Bob Lydia is expected to attend those meetings.

“Right now, what we want to do is to work with the city to address some of the concerns we heard from citizens and from city employees and police officers,” Luckey said. “A lot of them mentioned a lot of concerns about things that are occurring here, not only in the community, but also in the police department and the city.”

She said she wants to see how responsive the city will be to those complaints before moving forward with any further action.

If there are any further meetings, Grand Prairie Police Association officials want to be part of the discussion.

“We are a mediator,” Wester said. “If there is a problem with the chief or with the city involving an officer, then that is what these officers are members for, to sit down and try to work out the problems.

“If there is a problem, then we do want to try to assist and to fix that problem.”

Wester said that although he has heard “rumblings” about internal affairs investigations not being thorough, he is not aware of any complaints of racial bias in them.

“I've never heard about any racial problems in the department,” he said.

Police Chief Glen Hill said he was asked not to attend the Oct. 9 meeting, but that he has a meeting planned with the NAACP Oct. 29. Until then, he said, he preferred not to address questions on the matters.