Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr. said the city and Omaha Police Department are working to change police policies and procedures following a traffic stop where boxing champion Terence "Bud" Crawford was held at gunpoint.
The mayor said Nebraska's 2023 concealed carry law has resulted in "a significant number of traffic stops involving weapons" and has made law enforcement encounters "significantly more difficult" and "more dangerous for the citizens as well as police officers."
"One of the things we're going to do is we're going to examine what we're currently doing with traffic stops when it comes to traffic stops with weapons involved because there's a need to make sure that people understand first of all that they need to declare a weapon if they have one, and we want to make sure everybody knows that so then officers are aware of the fact that there is a weapon involved," Ewing said.
The mayor said he and Police Chief Todd Schmaderer are addressing several key areas, including examining procedures where firearms are present in vehicles, preventing scenes from becoming spectacles and taking immediate steps to build police-community trust.
"I want the community to know that the Omaha Police Department, the city of Omaha, is always going to be responsive when we have an incident that we can learn from, and I believe that's what I want us to understand is this is a learning opportunity for this community. This is a learning opportunity for the police department. This is a learning opportunity for me as mayor," Ewing said.
Ewing said Sunday was one of the worst days in his public service career and that he still believes Crawford is a hero in the Omaha community.
"I want people to remember this, that Mr. Terrence Bud Crawford is a hero in this community and he is someone that I respect and that the members of law enforcement respect as well and I think we have to be sure and careful that we don't allow this or anything else to tarnish that and that we work as a community to continue to celebrate him and continue to move forward," Ewing said.
The mayor said there are multiple planned changes including open community forums, enhanced training, traffic data analysis and revised procedures for traffic stops involving weapons.
On Wednesday, Ewing and Schmaderer will be at Omaha 360 to answer questions and get feedback.
"We can hear from the community directly so that they can give us their thoughts on what we can do to be better. One of the things I will never be afraid of as mayor of this great city is to take input from the people of this community," Ewing said.
Ewing acknowledged that current police procedures for traffic stops involving weapons rely heavily on individual officer judgment, with insufficient standardized protocols.
"There's a lot of officer discretion and you need some of that officer discretion in order to have officers be able to be safe. And so what I would like to do is have them look at it so that they can say these are things that we can put into procedure without compromising officer safety," Ewing said.
When asked if he had seen body camera footage from the incident, Ewing said he would not comment on the ongoing internal affairs investigation. KMTV also requested the footage, but the request was declined.
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