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For Melody Smith Johnson, force is excessive when an officer sends someone to the hospital or causes them "life-changing physical damage" despite their interaction warranting no such consequences. One of those recent uses of force, against resident Dedrick Parks after he confronted police during a Sept. 7 investigation, left him unable to open his mouth, a friend told City Council the following week. 

But Johnson, owner of downtown coworking space Melody's and a member of the Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP, noted at Tuesday's forum that she has discussed excessive force with Auburn Police Chief James Slayton before. So she asked him again, in front of those present at the Booker T. Washington Community Center, to explain how his department specifically defines it. 

Slayton, who gave a presentation earlier at the forum, said excessive force could mean an officer kicking and punching a person "laying lifeless" on the ground.

"To take someone down or to use a distactionary technique such as a punch, is not excessive force," Slayton said. "What the officer receives at the time while he's dealing with the incident, we can't sit back and Monday morning quarterback and say, 'You should have done this,' because I wasn't there, I wasn't in the situation."

More than 30 people attended the forum, which saw Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck and Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci speak and answer questions along with Slayton.

The use of force against Parks was referenced throughout the forum, as was the August arrest of Chelci Love outside West Middle School Apartments that saw an officer strike her in the head several times. The department said the strikes were "not considered excessive" because Love had wrapped her legs around the neck of her 3-year-old daughter, and the officer was trying to free her.

While Parks and Love were referenced throughout the forum, it was not meant to focus on any particular incidents, according to host the Harriet Tubman Center for Justice and Peace. Member Bill Berry Jr. moderated the forum, and attendees included city, county and law enforcement officials. It lasted about two hours, and remained polite and respectful even as difficult questions were discussed.

Not all questions concerned the recent incidents. Earlier in the forum, resident Robbie Barnes asked Slayton if Auburn police officers are encouraged to begin their service as school resource officers.

"Some of these kids don't trust police. They're raised to not trust police," Barnes said.

"I think that gives an opportunity to see that cop (they) see in public — 'Oh, that's so-and-so from the school' — and it makes them feel comfortable and possibly come up and talk to them."

Slayton said new officers are not encouraged to start as SROs in order to help them retain what they learned during over 25 weeks of police academy. The police chief noted that he became an SRO with the Auburn Enlarged City School District after having served as an officer for 10 years, though now officers are becoming SROs after less time on the job.

While talking to a community member about officers and civilians being respectful to one another, Slayton spoke about working with young recruits.

"You give a 20-year-old kid a gun and a badge and for 28 weeks he's been going to the academy: 'Everybody's after you,' 'Everybody wants to kill you,' 'You're gonna get killed on a traffic stop.' They come out like this. We now have to (work with) them and say, 'You don't have to be that way. Now you've got to do it our way,'" he said.

"But they're human beings. Ninety percent of the people you deal with, if you treat them with respect, they're going to treat with you respect."

Cayuga County Legislator Brian Muldrow praised Slayton, Schenck and Grome Antonacci for answering questions, and thanked community members for coming.

"I think that all of us had questions, but the answers are in this room today," Muldrow said. "We're going to get to the answers by having these meetings."