People demonstrate in the street as police cars pass outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, La., on July 6. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store by Baton Rouge police, where he was selling CDs.
People demonstrate in the street as police cars pass outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, La., on July 6. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store by Baton Rouge police, where he was selling CDs. Credit: AP file

As a Concord native, I feel deep respect for those who have sworn to protect and serve my community – the police officers who responded when our house was broken into, and speeded to the scene when our car was side-swiped on the highway; who try to keep drunken drivers off our roads, and heroin out of our schools.

I want you to be safe from harm and to raise your families in peace, because you have made the same possible for me.

But just as I value your well-being, I also value the lives of those you swore to protect.

In the wake of several high-profile police shootings of black Americans, we as citizens should not have to take sides between supporting police and caring for marginalized members in our community – be they black or homeless or mentally ill.

For many Americans, the police have become a symbol of fear, extreme violence and systematic discrimination.

It is the citizens’ responsibility to understand local law enforcement procedures, in order to be informed enough to seek recourse if our basic rights are ever jeopardized.

I am therefore writing to inquire what is being done to ensure that incidents like the extrajudicial killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and many others before them, never happen in our community.

I would like to know how Concord police are trained to use nonlethal force to de-escalate situations, and to request public access to information about the department’s conduct review process: who reviews and oversees complaints, how review panels are appointed, how regularly audits of reviews are conducted, and whether the chief of police is required to take disciplinary action if recommended by the review.

I want to see a world in which Americans can once again look to law enforcement for protection, but we must recognize that for many Americans, this is no longer the case.

Thank you for the work you do, and I hope you will continue in your efforts to keep our communities safe and peaceful in the future.

(Sarah Freeman-Woolpert lives in Concord.)