Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert

In our high speed news cycle, it seems like people — politicians, talking heads, friends — make wild statements, then move on to the next topic, letting the chips fall where they may.

Is reality under attack? Do facts matter? Do we attempt to confirm statements before we argue? As a nation, we struggle to make sense of how to handle information and its legitimacy.

As a citizen activist, I work for fairness in government, particularly at the city level. Our elected officials and municipal employees are community members who have put themselves in positions to serve the rest of us. But that doesn’t mean that they are alone in running the city. The way I see it, we are responsible to and for each other. We have obligations as residents of a city to participate.

In 2017, Omaha Police officers used a Taser 12 times on Zachary Bearheels, pulled his hair, and repeatedly punched him. [video] He later died in police custody. It spurred me to ask questions about the use of force by police. I requested public data from the City and found that, from January 2013 through June 2017, Omaha Police Department reported 13 in-custody deaths and 20 officer-involved shootings, 10 of which were fatal. That was an average of one shooting or death every 50 days.

More questions. Was that normal? What is the process of investigation? How are police held accountable for their actions? Besides grand jury investigations, police run internal affairs investigations. But are those impartial? How can residents be assured of fairness? Who polices the police?

Omaha used to have an independent police auditor who observed internal investigations as a representative of the people. So I posted the public data on Facebook and called for the creation of an internal police auditor. It’s only fair that the police are held to high standards of conduct, right?

The mayor disagreed. She deleted my first post, so I commented again.