Council members talk protests and body cameras

Council members talk protests and body cameras

For joining us tonight.

A fort wayne city councilman took time during tonight's meeting to express how he felt about what's taken place with police and residents..and offering bipartisan support for body cameras.

Fox 55'sjentill neal talked some council members about their plans moving forward in hopes of bringing the community together.

Jentill?tonight councilman jehl says what's missing nationally and here locally is how do we come together?

How do we get rid of racism?

How do we respect police?he says that starts with having the tough discussions going forward.

Discussion of how police are handling protests and body cameras came up last week... tonight no different-- this time councilman jehl expressing bipartisan support for the devices.> 14:18:58-14:19:12"for six years we have been told we would have body cameras.

Now that we have a situation of distrust, we are back making the same promises.

So it's time to deliver."after seeing what's happened with the protests and the increase in arrests sunday and monday, jehl says healing is needed and the only way to do that is by working together- no violence involved.

Councilwoman chambers agrees.

14:33:06-14:33:31"we have a lot of innocent bystanders being affected by tear gas.

They have been casualties to this situation where they've been isolated and not able to leave a situation, children have now been affected by the aggressive behavior of the individuals containing the protesters so we have collateral damage in this situation."chambers says these are unprecedented times and that everyone is trying to figure it out.chambers and jehl both asked for a full report of the review by the police department.

They are still waiting on that.> 14:20:05-14:20:22"we want to improve race relations.

We want to have a respected police force.

If we hold together, and we support common sense things like transparency, on our boards and body cameras, those are going to be positive steps for everybody."

Councilwoman chambers says they are 6 to 8 weeks out to council voting on the body cameras.reporting live in fort wayne, jentill neal ... fox 55 news.