George Floyd’s murder ignited calls for police and social justice reform nationwide, including in Central Florida.

What You Need To Know

  • Police departments nationwide updated their use of force policies following George Floyd’s death

  • In July 2020, OPD banned chokeholds/strangleholds and required officers to issue a verbal warning before shooting

  • People attending community meetings helped push for those changes, recommended by the #8CantWait campaign 

In July 2020, the Orlando Police Department (OPD) updated its policies to officially ban chokeholds and strangleholds, and require officers issue a verbal warning before shooting. Both rules have exceptions if an officer’s safety or someone else’s is in jeopardy.

The changes came following the nationwide #8CantWait campaign, which advocates more restrictive use of force policies. People attending the Citizens’ Police Review Board meetings pushed for those policy changes at the local level after Floyd’s death.

“Chief Rolon was transparent in letting them know a lot of the things in #8CantWait they had already started doing here in Orlando,” explained Caila Coleman, the chairwoman of the Orlando Citizens’ Police Review Board.

Coleman, an attorney who practices family and criminal law, is optimistic for more progressive policy changes and better police-community relations moving forward. 

“It definitely gives me hope for here in Orlando because I know that our chief and our police officers here have really been following that case and really been following what the climate is across the United States between citizens and police officers,” she told Spectrum News 13. “I think they’re really trying to do better here.”

Others aren’t as optimistic, including local activist Lawanna Gelzer.

“It was public relations,” she said of OPD’s updated policies. She’s concerned officers will claim they didn’t feel safe and be considered justified in their use of force.

“Deadly force is supposed to (be) used when you feel like your life is in jeopardy, not because someone didn’t comply with your command,” she said.

“When the verdict came out for George Floyd, why were we at the edge of our seats hoping this time that this police officer would be found guilty? He was guilty. If anyone else had done anything like that, there wouldn’t even be any question. So that in itself is why we continue to fight,” said Gelzer.

Both Gelzer and Coleman feel more needs to be done to improve police-community relations in Orlando.

“I don’t know that there’s been a big shift to make them better and more relatable to us, but I do think that we as citizens are holding them more accountable to their jobs more-so since last summer,” Coleman said.