JOLIET, IL — Retired Officer Brad Price, speaking on behalf of the Joliet Black Police Officer Association, wanted everyone to know Tuesday afternoon that his organization remains strongly supportive of Mayor Bob O’Dekirk.

Price was one of several speakers at Tuesday’s news conference surrounding the mayor’s actions involving an altercation on West Jefferson Street that led to the arrests of two young African-American men on the night of the street violence, Sunday, May 31.

Price said O’Dekirk has reversed "good ole boys club" hiring practices at Joliet’s City Hall that were prevalent for several decades. Unlike his predecessors, Price said, O’Dekirk has hired black female police officers, and he hired the first black female at the Joliet Fire Department.

There had been a 25-year trend of zero African-American women being hired on the Joliet Police Department and there had never been a woman on the Joliet Fire Department until O’Dekirk became mayor in 2015, according to Price.

Price said that O’Dekirk is responsible "for shrinking the gap on some of the racial disparities" that exist at the Joliet Police Department and the Joliet Fire Department.

O’Dekirk has stood by the Joliet Black Police Officer Association and by their mission, Price said.

Following Tuesday’s news conference, Price, along with fellow African-American Joliet Police officers, Detective David Jackson and Sgt. Carlos Matlock, distributed a three-page statement offering their support for O’Dekirk.

Part of the statement reads: "The uninformed have said officers were placed in danger by the actions of the mayor. JBPOA knows this to be untrue. Officers were in danger long before any of the alleged conduct of the mayor. We at the JBPOA are willing to let the process work the way it is designed to for all Americans."

At Tuesday’s City Hall news conference, O’Dekirk said he would not be resigning from office as some of his critics have sought.

The full document written by the Joliet Black Police Officer Association is below. The organization consists of 25 to 30 members, who are white and black, members told Joliet Patch.