District meetings summary notes

Reimagining Public Safety community forums summary – May 23, 2022

There were clear differences in the issues raised in each district with some more focused on traffic issues and others interested in learning more about developing better communication with the community. Participation ranged from 7-25 community members. In general people were glad to have the opportunity to share their concerns and there was general support for the police, but also concerns about specific practices, including traffic violation enforcement, and a desire to know what residents can do to promote safety.

The questions

• Have you had any experiences with the police that you would like to share, positive or negative?
• Have you had any observations of policing that have caused concern?
• Are there parts of policing that you would like to know more about? (e.g., when there is more than one police car at what looks like a traffic stop)
• What kinds of information do you want to see coming from the police?
  • ­Police activity
  • Data and reporting
• Do you know how to file a compliment or complaint regarding the police? 
• Have you had any interaction with the police in that regard?
• What questions do you have about the complaint process?

Key topics

Traffic enforcement

• Drivers not following directions, speeding and careless around school areas.
• Concerns raised about bikes – need for teaching kids to ride in traffic
• Desire for more enforcement of moving violations

Communication/website

• More clarity around goals of current efforts
• Most people don’t know how to find information on police website, or how to make complaints/give kudos
• Desire for more transparency, more forums like the safe space forums so that residents feel heard, coffee meetings
• More opportunities for community involvement/community building activities as things open up
• Discuss police metrics and training and upcoming events that the community can learn from or participate

Data

• Desire to see more statistical information on stops and arrests, is there data broken down by race?

Practices

• Ambiguity around parking enforcement, overnight parking enforcement is lax
• Police not responding or not arriving in a timely manner when called
• What is happening in terms of racial bias/de-escalation training?
• Alerting neighborhood residents when police draw their weapons, or when there is a shooting

Upcoming meeting

Please join us to further explore and discuss the feedback from our recent district meetings.