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From: Clara Jaeckel <br />To: GRP -City Council; Council -Diane Howard; Council -Janet Borgens; Council -Ian Bain; Council-Giselle Hale; Council - <br />Shelly Masur; Council -Diana Reddy; Council -Alicia Aguirre; MGR -Melissa Stevenson Diaz <br />Cc: RWC Community For Fair Policing <br />Subject: public comment for October 5 council meeting agenda item 4.A. <br />Date: Monday, October 5, 2020 12:34:48 PM <br />Dear Council Members and City Manager Diaz, <br />We have reviewed the Staff Report and the accompanying attachments and are disappointed in <br />this document that appears to justify maintaining the status quo, and which recommends <br />minimal, if any, material changes to protect residents of color in Redwood City. <br />We appreciate your engaging PCRC to conduct community listening sessions. The PCRC <br />report was thorough and accurately reflected the discussions heard in various listening <br />sessions that we all attended. However, your summary of the PCRC report seems discrepant <br />from the report itself. <br />For instance, the PCRC report shows that defunding the police was a top public ask, but this <br />was minimized in the feedback themes you reported. We ask again for a reinvestment in our <br />community through a redirection of funds currently budgeted for the police into community <br />services. <br />The public has clearly asked for decreased interactions with police, as demonstrated by the <br />listening sessions. However, your recommendations tend toward increasing interactions with, <br />and funding of, police. <br />For instance, the PCRC report states that residents are concerned about police in schools, but <br />your report only suggests "clarifying" the role of SROs and already anticipates signing a new <br />contract with the school district, when many parents want no contract with RCPD. We call not <br />for "clarification" but elimination of this position. There is no need for children in school to <br />have contact or relationships with police. The presence of police in schools only serves to <br />escalate the criminalization of minor misbehavior by children. <br />We also note discrepancies between your own summary and your recommendations. For <br />instance, you state that an "organizational structure that supports equity" was a public ask, but <br />we see no recommendations that would actually advance organizational equity. It's great to <br />hear that a significant number of hires and promotions in the PD are women and people of <br />color, but, those efforts are null if those employees leave due to a toxic work culture. When <br />collecting data on workforce diversity, it is important to track retention and attrition rates, <br />salary parity, and results of employee satisfaction and department culture surveys, which are <br />omitted from this report. <br />We appreciate the effort to change the response to mental health crisis calls with the proposed <br />pilot program. However, we have significant concerns about partnering armed police with <br />mental health clinicians. The presence of weapons increases risk and decreases the likelihood <br />of a safe outcome for community members in mental health crises. We again ask for mental <br />health and social workers to replace rather than assist armed police on these calls. <br />Similarly, the daily contact between the PD and homeless residents is very concerning. In fact, <br />we see it as a disadvantage for this support to be provided by armed officers, and we call for <br />