CLEVELAND — The volume of Brenda Bickerstaff’s voice has always been loud and clear, and she says it isn’t fading anytime soon.
Bickerstaff was among the dozens of residents from Cleveland’s east side who came to watch, listen or speak during a meeting at Glenville Recreation Center surrounding crime, safety and police-community relations.
“All this money that they’re spending on this misconduct with police brutality is money that should be going into our neighborhoods for healthcare, programs for these children in our school, dilapidated schools and housing,” said Bickerstaff.
Bickerstaff was among the dozens of residents from Cleveland’s east side who came to watch, listen or speak during a meeting at Glenville Recreation Center about crime, safety and police-community relations.
A topic near and dear to Bickerstaff her brother Craig was shot and killed by Cleveland Police two decades ago.
The meeting was organized by Cleveland Council members from Ward 8, 9 and 10.
“Of course, safety, police brutality, it’s an issue and I’m trying to get them [city leaders] to understand we have a crime issue and we have police brutality, they all go under one umbrella,” said Bickerstaff. “It’s a disease and there has to be a cure.”
“Residents have been complaining about police services for this entire year, and hearing gunshots in this community,” said Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell. “Safety it is very important.”
Cleveland Public Safety Director Kerrie Howard fielding many of the questions.
“The public has to understand and believe in its division of police, we have to be out there to do everything we can to keep the community safe,” said Howard. “We don’t do that by refusing to get out in the community and that’s where we were today.”
Residents questioned Howard on crime reduction and more police presence.
Howard said he plans to address those concerns while still facing a shortage of nearly 300 officers.
“As we look at our division of police, we are going to see what it is and what can be changed and to serve what we have here in modern day,” said Howard.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
