Maplewood Mayor: We'll Train You On When NOT To Call 911

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The town of Maplewood hosted a forum on Friday (Juneteenth) called "From Awareness to Action: A Forum on Law Enforcement Accountability, Mass Incarceration in America and The Treatment of Black People in our community." Mayor Frank McGehee said in an update on Tuesday that the video of the forum can now be viewed here.

McGehee noted that in the future, the town's Community Board on Police will provide training on which steps you should take before calling 911, particularly regarding a "suspicious" youth.

The mayor said, "In 2018, in Maplewood over 300 calls were made to 911 which were not about police matters, many of them were calls about 'suspicious' Black youth from our community. When someone makes this call, our department is required to respond which can result in an unnecessary confrontation as the Black youth does not understand what he has done and why they are being stopped or approached by the police."

McGehee added, "By not making the 'suspicious' call, not only can we help save cost and time - more importantly our community can do its part to avoid the perpetuation of harmful negative stereotypes and racial profiling which only traumatize and humiliate our Black children even further."

You can read the mayor's message in full here.

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