Title
Advancing the City’s Continued Efforts to Implement a Community-First Approach to Public Safety.
Body
Whereas, a Community-First Public Safety framework seeks to build a compelling, holistic, and proactive violence reduction and community-centered safety strategy for Saint Paul which is informed by deep public engagement, research, tracking and analysis of real-time data, and cross-sector collaboration of stakeholders; and
Whereas, research and history shows that true community safety is an outcome of investing deeply and directly in communities in stable housing, education, youth programs, job opportunities, and environmental and public health; and
Whereas, Chief Todd Axtell and our Saint Paul Police Department continue to build and maintain relationships across our community through partnerships, mentoring programs, and youth engagement, and through policy reform including revision of the Department’s use-of-force and K9 Unit policies; and
Whereas, our police officers are called upon to respond to a broad array of needs beyond emergencies and crime, and following an increase of 48,000 more non-emergency low-priority 911 calls between 2016 and 2019, creating alternate response models that ensure our officers remain available for emergency and crime response is vital; and
Whereas, research and history also shows that funding caring, committed community organizations and networks to support and engage our youth and create positive community presence in our neighborhoods is one of the most effective ways to strengthen community relationships, foster lasting stability, intervene safely in a range of crises, and reduce and prevent violent crime; and
Whereas, research and history also shows that investing in punitive, reactive, traditional policing models while neglecting needed proactive investments have yielded greatly harmful disparities in racial equity for Black, indigenous, immigrant, and other communities of color (BIPOC); and
Whereas, the unjus...
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