The
second meeting of the Mayor's Community Panel on Police Pursuits took place on Monday,
September 22, 2003. The panel, chaired by Dr. Stanley Stone of Valencia Community College,
will examine Orlando Police Department's policy, training, implementation and tracking and
recommend improvements to Chief McCoy and Mayor Dyer. The committee is made up of 15
civilians and two representatives of OPD. The committee is in the process of gathering
information and laying the groundwork for it's review which is expected to take about 90
days. I would like to thank the Mayor and Dr. Stone for inviting me to serve on the
committee. Jim Phillips 9/23/03
The third meeting of the Mayor's Panel was held on Monday, October 6th. The panel
began a line by line review of the policy. The debate was spirited and the views
diverse. The next meeting is scheduled for October 20, 2003.
Jim Phillips 10/10/03 After
several more meetings of the Orlando panel the policy recommendations are beginning to
take shape. The panel is preparing for the visit of Dr. Geoffrey Alpert, nationally
recognized pursuit expert, on December 1st. Jim Phillips 11/23/03
Dr. Alpert's visit to the Orlando Citizen panel was a
great success. His expertise and experience will be a great asset to the panel as we
complete our work. The committee continues to make progress in their work and are
confident of a policy that can be held up as a model policy for the whole of the U.
S. Jim Phillips 12/05/03
 The committee completed its initial "run
through" of the Orlando PD policy. After many hours of discussion the major obstacles
have been removed from a committee consensus and our chairman is confident that we will
finish our work in January. It appears that way to me as well, and I believe that the
policy we will recommend will be the most enlightened and safest in the entire
nation. Jim Phillips 12/20/03
|