We deserve better.

We deserve an approach to community safety that is grounded in our shared humanity. We deserve community safety programs that prioritize preventing harm before it happens, by investing in communities and addressing the underlying causes of crime. We know when folks' basic needs aren’t being met, when our young people feel ignored and have nowhere to go, when people experiencing homelessness or addiction are criminalized instead of supported, crime goes up. We can proactively prevent crime through policies that address these needs.

We deserve community safety professionals who are accountable to our communities. That means changing our hiring practices, so we value community service and prioritize hiring applicants with backgrounds in caring professions who bring new and important perspectives to the work. It means implementing meaningful accountability processes for our officers and their managers–not just “coaching” those who violate policies and harm community members. It means developing new accountability processes for violence interrupters–contracts for this vital work must be awarded based on expertise and demonstrated effectiveness, not personal connections to the mayor and his donors.

We already know what is needed to improve community safety and make repairs that build public trust. When I co-chaired the City Community Safety Working Group, I made those recommendations to the Mayor. As mayor, I will prioritize safety solutions that ensure people who call for help get the help they need from community safety professionals they can trust.