Montgomery County, Md., council member-at-large, Will Jawando (D) joined Hill.TV’s “Rising” on Wednesday to discuss police reform following the conviction of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, in the death of George Floyd.
Jawando told co-host Krystal Ball and guest host Emily Jashinsky that reform needs to come in two areas: Accountability for wrongdoing by members of law enforcement, as well as a readjustment of what kinds of incidents for which police are trained or required to respond.
“We’ve spent a long time here focusing on accountability and transparency when misconduct happens, which is critically important to serve as a deterrent,” Jawando said. “But we also have to back it up and work on, what are police spending their time doing?”
“Are they focused on people who are dealing with mental health crises, homeless individuals. Are they responding to calls that they don’t need to be, are they in schools that they don’t need to be, as opposed to focusing on violent crime,” he continued, calling for a “smaller, more focused, more highly trained police department.”
Watch more of Will Jawando’s interview above:
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