SCRANTON, Pa. — The Scranton Police Department's Undercover Santa program will not go on this year. The city made the decision after hearing from leaders in the black community.
It was designed to spread holiday cheer — police officers pulling people over to hand out vouchers for local restaurants instead of traffic tickets. But the Undercover Santa program has now been suspended in the city of Scranton after several community activists raised concerns.
"It's not a program that makes everyone in our community feel comfortable, not just residents of color but other residents, too. Getting pulled over for a minor infraction could be a very anxiety-inducing event," said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.
"If we wanted to bring some holiday cheer, there's other ways to go about it that aren't insensitive to people who already have apprehensions with encountering police. I just felt like, for me, in my own personal perspective, if I was one of those quote unquote lucky people who got pulled over and then got a coupon, I would not only just continue to be scared, but it would be like an insensitive joke," said Glynis Johns.
Johns is the founder of the Black Scranton Project. She was joined by the Lackawanna County chapter of the NAACP and Creating Change FTP in providing the feedback to the city.
A spokesperson for the NAACP said in a statement to Newswatch 16, "Traffic stops can be traumatic for BPOC drivers and passengers. Under the current circumstances surrounding racist culture allegations within the SPD and the wake of global unrest with the death of George Floyd, we strongly advised the city to take a different direction that will magnetize a community with its police force rather than divide us even further."
"I just thought that it was tone-deaf, considering black people continue to get murdered at traffic stops, and that people have a genuine fear of police, considering some of the text messages that have gotten leaked about the anti-black sentiments within the Scranton Police Department," Johns said.
Those text messages, which showed two officers using multiple racial slurs during a 2018 arrest, were shared on social media back in November. The officers were fired in June of this year after an internal investigation.
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"I had to read through much of that," said the mayor. "It wasn't a difficult decision to make those terminations, but I had to do my job, and it was stomach-churning, absolutely stomach-churning. I literally felt sick."
"Moving forward, we're going to take all kinds of precautions to keep that from happening again," said Acting Scranton Police Chief Namiotka.
In November, Chief Namiotka said in a statement to Newswatch 16, "I would like to clarify that the statements made in the November 8, 2020 Facebook post from an officer who was terminated that the “culture of our agency” is to allow racist behavior from the officers. This is 100% false and any actions of this kind will not be tolerated in the Scranton Police Department. This is made clear by the terminations, previously this year, of the two officers for their behavior."
Johns says suspending the Undercover Santa program is a step in the right direction, but "it's the smallest thing on the to-do list."
Since the incident in November, the city has held a series of meetings with leaders in the black community in an effort to create more transparency and accountability. The city is also looking to implement an independent police review board.
The food vouchers that had already been purchased or donated will not go to waste. The Scranton Police Department says it's planning to host another event next week with the same goal of giving back to the community.
If you would like to report a concern to the city of Scranton, you can email Scranton311@scrantonpa.gov