SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A plan to rebuild trust is what South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is working on.
He went before the South Bend Common Council, taking a break from his presidential campaign, to give councilors an update on where his administration is at when it comes to the fall out from the shooting death of Eric Logan by a police officer.
“The work that is sought by the community and undertaken by the administration in these areas is not new, but it needs to be renewed,” Buttigieg said. “It needs to be refocused.”
Logan, who is black, was shot and killed by Sergeant Ryan O’Neill, who is white. O’Neill’s body camera was not turned on to record the incident. Logan’s family is now suing the city and O’Neill claiming he was the victim of bias and his constitutional rights were violated.
On the criminal side of things the case will be handed over to a special prosecutor, Ripley County’s Ric Hertel, today.
“If the investigation comes back and says that the shooting was not avoidable and the officer followed every policy, we’re still left with the fact that there is tremendous concern and aguish even in the community,” Buttigieg said after the meeting.
Some of the things Buttigieg is proposing to rebuild trust include stricter guidelines for making appointments to the city’s board of Public Safety and ways to make it easier for the public to have access to police body camera footage.
Buttigieg is also asking for a thorough review of the city’s police department from the ground up to “identify area where we still have some work to do.”
(PHOTO: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
