City Council - Regular Meeting

Hi, everybody. Good afternoon.

I want to call this meeting to order. It is 4-46, and this is a meeting of the Public Safety Committee. My name is Jerry Martin, the chairman of this committee. Um, I am joined by counselor, uh, thank you. I'm also joined by, uh, madam president, Tracy Whitfield. Thank you for joining us, uh, president. Um, tonight's topic is just kind of updates on, you know, public safety throughout the city. I know councilor Davila wanted us to talk about specific forest park area concerns as well. Um, so we're just kind of go over some of the statistics, some of the plans, some of, uh, Just what's going on. But before we get kicked off, I'll just have everybody go around real quick, introduce themselves.

Erica Swallow from Forest Park.

Captain Brian Belafonte, Springfield Police. Sergeant Dave Robillard, Springfield FRU.

Sergeant Daniel Johnson, C3 Forest Park. You're on.

I'm also joined by Erica Cruz over Zoom. Hi, Erica. How are you?

Good. Thank you for having this meeting.

Yeah, of course. All right. So, again, just wanted to talk about general updates. Again, I know Councilor Davin had reached out to me about a week or so ago with some concerns in Forest Park. I know that's the reason why Erica is here. Do you want to communicate some of the concerns, the stuff that you had?

We keep communicating, so they already have communications. But in general, I'll just say that it's on whenever my professional is a real estate agent. In my profession, it starts to become a problem, but I've had just multiple clients recently who've been affected by gun violence in particular, and they're not the first. The first one was a couple of years ago on Mattoon Street. I had a buyer under contract at 27 Mattoon Street and somebody was shot right outside of that while they were under contract. They considered pulling out and decided to move forward because, you know, everyone understands some of these can be random. So they said, oh, maybe this is just weird, but they had a history of, one of the husband had a childhood history with gun violence involved in his neighborhood. So he just had a lot of trauma around this and they were like, ugh, he decided to stay. Okay, so then we have at 66 Fairfield, I listed that. And then just a couple months after that buyer purchased it, now somebody is shot and killed out right in front of their house at the one right across the street. And they helped clean up the blood on the sidewalk that evening with the family and friends of the victim. And that was heartbreaking to hear about and to be, I live three blocks away from there. And then on Rockland in your neighborhood, I have another client who purchased a home there a couple of years ago. And they recently were one of the homes that had been shot in that kind of like drive-by experience or joyriding or whatever you want to call it where that those two individuals were apparently just spraying bullets all around. So they are now expediting their plans to move out of Springfield. And I'm just bringing a concern from an angle you may not hear often, or you may hear it, but I am now three clients in to hearing about gun violence over the past few years directly relating to their experience of living in Springfield. So it's pretty concerning from my perspective, and obviously I'm also Forest Park resident myself and even though I haven't had a very direct like as in my on my property and these three have I've had a very direct experience I do also I'm also someone who experiences the idea of the things that happen when you have done violence happening in your own neighborhood or city in things like I'm a woman and I'm not going to go walking through Forest Park, you know, if I don't feel like there's people around. Things like that, I don't feel safe in a lot of places because I feel like I could just be a random victim, not because there's just rampant people against me, but I could just be standing somewhere and accidentally be a part of violence, and specifically gun violence is super scary because it can happen so fast and you just don't know. So I just am seeing all the fear from people that are close to me, people that I serve and I wanted to, I remember my main feedback was those individuals, not the first one because that kind of just went and gone, but the more recent ones, I think that the Fairfield was very quickly resolved. That was really positive. It came, it went, the DA announced it. That is a great experience, I think, or the best you could possibly have in a horrible situation like that. There are other instances where it's a little less easy, and I understand the difficulties from the investigation side to the on-the-ground side, but I would just say the feedback from the people who live in those places, you know, and include myself, is that they don't know what they should be doing, like they didn't get any feedback afterwards, like their house is shot up or something happens and they're just kind of like, okay, so what do we do now? And You know, I did hear, I can't remember if it was from you or if it was from someone else, but someone had, oh, it's you, Jerry. You told me about the car they should be looking for. And sure enough, they had cited that specific car driving around. It was the day before you told me the car description, but she was outside gardening the day before, which she did see that car being suspicious. And she was like, oh my gosh, I was outside gardening when that went by. So it's good that they eventually got the information. I don't think they've spotted it any further, but there's just a general, and then I did bring up in my emails with you, Sergeant Johnson, that myself, I am still, this isn't gun violence, this is just general murder, but I'm still kind of, there's a big open question to me regarding the two women who were killed seemingly out on recreation, one on the river walk and one on Tractor Road in Forest Park. The fact that those are seemingly cold cases are, and with not any updates ever since they happened is another example in the community where that is just very scary to know that those things just seem to go unsolved. And it is not like, what can we do? But those are just those instances where there's no update And then you're just like, and you're down the road and you're like, okay, well, we just live in a violent community is the takeaway. Like, you just got to be careful. You just got to not do certain things. And that's everywhere, especially in cities. But it's tough whenever, as a real estate agent, part of my job is to help people acclimate to a place. And when it's my home and I'm like, I actually, you know, I'm not allowed to talk about violence or I'm not allowed to talk about crimes. So it becomes very difficult when somebody asks me things like, is this a safe neighborhood? And I can't really tell them. I was like, go look at these steps. And then they look at them and they're like, wait a minute, there was a murder? What is going on here? So just bring in some personal feedback. And I don't know how to solve that, but I do feel a lot of people, they feel reluctant to even try to get involved in a meeting like this because they feel like it's just been going on and it doesn't improve. So why should we even be talking about it still? I think there's a little bit of kind of like apathy in the citizenry of what can be done here, because this is kind of just how it is.

And, you know, Councilor Dabla, I know you've been talking with Erica and myself, particularly as it relates to Ward 6 and the Forest Park neighborhood. Is there anything else that you wanted to kind of add to or narrow down?

Yeah, sure. And I'm sure I believe the captain has some statistics to be able to do a little while. So I'm standing, but I think I'm on the PD often, but something that Erica said that already is true, that these things happen everywhere. It's not the same when it happens on the farm, right? And so you could make the argument that it's happening all throughout the city, which it is. And, but we can never give up the quest of making the city better day by day. And literally, I know, in my opinion, the police department are doing the very best that they can do with the amount of hours and resources that they have, but also the prevention of, we cannot expect the cops to solve anything, they can't. And so prevention, and our brother Nasir is here, and he is a youth, a welcome brother. And so I think that, Councilor Martin, that we as a city, we need to have really started to really start figuring out how we can be more preventive. I know some cases are, every case is different. The one that Erica was talking about, Trafton Road, all I can specifically address that is that by understanding that's the involving investigation. And so the cops can really say much because they don't want to compromise the investigation. And so we want the person to be caught And so it is frustrating for them as well to sometimes keep them, you know, and so, but I can assure you that still open and they will not give up. Okay. So, yeah, so that's just kind of like an initial intro on my thoughts. And so, yeah, thank you.

Before I pass it off to the officers who are joining us here today, I'd like to acknowledge our counselor, Meryl Brown, also a member of the Public Safety Committee. Thank you for joining us, counselor. But so, yeah, I will open the floor to one of our police officers here. Anyone wants to comment, particularly as far as the Forest Park, any statistics or any ideas of what's going on?

Well, first and foremost, I'd like to say I appreciate your concerns and it would certainly seem that it is unfortunately serendipitous your proximity to the events that you are relaying. Obviously, I would hope that's unique. But again, your scope within the city and your reach within the city, as far as those that you do deal with, it would put you in a position better suited to have more contacts per se. But again, unfortunate nonetheless. With regards to, and to Counselor Martin's, or Counselor Davila's comment, with regards to the ongoing investigations that you highlighted, I would be doing a disservice to our detective or our investigators to offer any sort of commentary on those at this point, other than the fact that we don't give up on anything. And when those details become known to us, we obviously are going to work on those things. As far as the bigger picture of violence within the city, obviously there are things that we can do. There are obviously multiple facets of how we're going to look at crime. We're going to look at it from a preventative measure, a suppressive measure, and an intervention measure, right? We do our best to identify as quickly as we can through intelligence, which is something that, you know, we work with our FIU, our firearms investigation unit, to intervene in these events as they are made known to us, and we stop them before they occur. And that has happened with a great deal of success within the city, and we'll continue to do so as we continue to increase our processes, increase our access to technology, train our officers, and highlight those initiatives. The preventative aspect of this is something that I can circle back to Counselor Davila here and say that the, and I don't want to use the word apathy of the public because I think that's an unfair, I think it's unfair to say. I think it's, in some cases, it's overwhelming. In other cases, there's just a question of what can I do, right? And so I think we have an obligation, obviously, and we try to do that through our C3 teams and through our community engagement to let people know what they can do, how they can cooperate, how they can participate. We've done that from a variety of different initiatives, from having community members work with our real-time crime analysis center, to provide information or camera access so that we can view cameras either in real time or post event. And again, provisions for how do we utilize the ring cameras? How do we use city cameras? There's a multitude of platforms that we can gather intelligence. It's when these events occur that we start to focus on those areas and start to reel in and collaborate or correlate our resources. That is going to continue to happen. It is not lost on us that there is obviously a need. We have a plethora of social service organizations within the city, which we all could benefit from improving our collaboration. And this is something that the Springfield Police Department has been committed to, I would argue, since the inception of the C3 team, at least as a benchmark, which goes back to March of 2015. Okay. And those were units that were embedded in those neighborhoods that were identified as being more prone to violence than others. And we've done that with a great deal of success. So those initiatives need to continue. But it does not mean that as we find more organizations coming forward and wanting to work with us to intervene, to provide upstream detection, of violent youthful offenders and that we're trying to do our best to get into those systems and provide them services outside of enforcement. Obviously, in a healthy community, not everything that we do is going to be police related. It's going to be a coalition of everybody involved with us, unfortunately, having to be the resolution in some of those events because it's kind of gotten to that point. Um, but we are committed and we are going to stay committed and we, we, I think we are an excellent department. I know we are an excellent department and we continue to get better. There are things that are occurring in the city of Springfield that are not occurring elsewhere in the state of Massachusetts. Um, you know, whether that be that you, we want to suggest that we're just coming out of a four year, um, uh, interaction with the department of justice. that a lot has changed. We're able to leverage a lot of things. We're able to make significant software purchases, software suites, improve our quality of services as far as detection. So we're continuing to go down that road. Anecdotally, violence is down. Statistically, violence is down. Where we are this year, as opposed to where we were last year, we're looking, well, and I hate to even say it because it's like a jinx kind of thing. We are down significantly on homicides in the city, significantly. We are down significantly at this point, as it was last year. We're down almost 30% from where we were for shots fired calls last year. That does not mean that we are not seizing guns. It does not mean that we are not investigating shootings. That does not mean that. It just means that this year, gun violence has been down. And so we are trying to do our best to continue that trend. And so I would like to think it has something to do with the efforts of the SPD. But it also is being identified as a trend statewide. So that's kind of where we're at. So while there have been some prolific events, ones that you were specifically referencing, it does not constitute that there has been a per se uptick in violence. So that is kind of, I mean, and again, this is not the end of the conversation, but that is kind of where we are coming from as far as the current context of what's going on.

I did question on the, Like, down to, is there any place, I talked to one counselor who said, yeah, well, the majority of guns fired are in my district, so you shouldn't be, in my word, you shouldn't be so uptight about Forest Park. And I'll tell you who that was later. But I wonder if Forest Park is, is it the same? Is it, do you know anything about art, like in East Forest Park? East Forest Park, you know, there was apparently multiple, incidences of the same, potentially same individuals, the same type of shootings, like hundreds of bullets. I wonder, like just those two areas, Forest Park, East Forest Park, if you don't have the data, that's totally fine. I, I'm just curious because I don't, I don't recall in my, I just don't recall like having multiple gun incidences so close together. In the time I've lived here in like such close proximity. I just, I know they're happening. I just didn't probably, probably one of those serendipitous days where I just happened to be very closely related to the people they happen to. But I just thought this is like, feels like more than usual in my area.

Um, I'm sorry, before I don't know, council president Whitfield or a couple of rise, any, um, follow up on what maybe Erica said, so we can.

Well, first I want to say thank you, Mr. Chair. And then I want to thank the police officers for the hard work that you do, keeping us safe in the community. You're also putting your lives at risk protecting ours. So I just wanted to publicly say thank you for the hard work that you all do, keeping us safe and on our behalf. And then I want to say to Erica, thank you for bringing these situations forward. We are aware of them. And being an at-large city councilor, I hear from all communities and honestly, Compared to other communities, Forest Park is relatively lower and East Forest Park even lower than that. So, but I'm not discounting or discrediting anything that you're saying, but I just, it's important. I wish that there was no gun violence anywhere, right? That's just really not where we're at. Hopefully we'll get there one day. Prayerfully we'll get there one day, but we're not there right now. So I'm not discrediting anything you're saying. But I have some statistics because I'm always looking at gun violence and that is something I've looked at since I've been a city councilor and before. And it's been a big, big platform or problem in my community because I'm directly impacted. A lot of the young people that are getting killed are my kids' friends. They're kids of my friends that I went to high school with. So I know them personally. So I'm intimately involved in this situation, but I just wanted to give you a couple of statistics. So prior to Superintendent Akers becoming the superintendent of the police department, I wanna give you the 2023 numbers and I'm gonna go up from there. So in 2023, there was 122 shootings of victims. 29 of them were gun violence homicides. There were 733 instances overall, okay? 733. 122 shootings and 29 gun violence deaths there were 32 homicides altogether then in 2024 it reduced a little bit this is when superintendent acres came on board it was 708 incidents so shootings overall 13 gun violence homicides so that is from 29 to 13 98 victims were shot from 122 the year before so there were 17 homicides overall 13 were gun violence homicides so now we're going to move up to 2025 now remember the total incidents in 2023 was 733 in 2024 it was 708 in 2025 it's 404 Yeah, so that is a significant decrease. So I'm just saying this because the police department is working hard against gun violence. And we always hear that gun violence is on the rise. There's an uptake. There's this and that. And so I just wanted to give you these numbers just so that people are aware that what's being put out in the universe isn't necessarily true. And we know one homicide is too many. but I just wanted to give you these numbers. So 2025, 59 shootings of victims, 10 of them were gun violence homicides. So we went from 29 gun violence homicides to 13 to 10. And we went from overall shootings with victims or not went from 733 to 708 to 404. And then 59 victims, so people who were shot but maybe did not die, that went from 122 to 98 to 59. So whatever the police department is doing is working. So I'm just gonna give you where they are today based on the numbers that I got recently. Total shootings is 260. Year to date. That's from 733, 708, 404, 260. That's where we are. Summer is usually the time that we have the most increased uptick in gun violence shootings. And then when we talk about people who were shot, it was 40. So that went from 122 to 98 to 59 to 40 year to date. Out of the 40, four of them were homicide victims. So four out of the 40 passed away. Those numbers are unprecedented to what I've seen since I've been the city councilor. They are the lowest. I don't wanna jinx it either. I don't wanna jinx it either, but I'm just wanting you all to know that the police department and their strategies and what they're doing is working. I am the co-chair of the Mason Square C3. So I hear a lot of what happens And in that community, as far as crime, we haven't heard of a lot of gun violence homicides as of lately. And maybe that's because it's four. And like I said, one is too many. We know that. The question that I have or the suggestion that I have for the officers is this. I get a lot of calls from the families of the victims of homicide that they cannot get in touch with whoever is investigating their relatives case. In my instance, I get a lot from mothers that are my friends and I don't really know what to do for them. And they say, just because I listen and I reach out and I get someone to get back in contact with them, means so much to them. Even if the answer hasn't changed, even if you don't have any more information, It should be a rotation that these families are contacted to let them know that police still care. We're still looking into this. We have not forgotten about your family member. I don't care if it's once a year, once every nine months, they have to be notified because it's hurting them. They think no one cares about them and their child or their family member and it's hurting them. And so that is gonna be my piece of advice to the police department. I'm also gonna have this conversation with the superintendent as well. Because people just want to know that someone still cares about them and their families. And so I just wanted to give those statistics, Chair Martin, and that will conclude my remarks. I know they were pretty long, but I definitely just wanted to put the statistics out for the community and for everyone to know that gun violence is on the decrease. The police department are putting in new strategies. the strategies as of right now from what I can see are working. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. No, thank you, Madam President. Just real quick before I pass comments and, you know, A, have Councilor Brown ask a question and B, have the officers respond. Where exactly could people be at home? Where do we access those

statistics that you were... You know, Councilman, we're city councilors. I asked for them. I asked for them and I got them sent to me. So I had asked for them probably like two weeks ago and then superintendent was on vacation or something. So I just got these numbers today. But when I got them, I was so happy and impressed. But maybe the officers can advise where the numbers come from.

Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, officers, if you want to you know, respond or comment back to, you know, some of those statistics or expand upon any of the statistics that Madam President Woodfield had laid out?

No, I mean, obviously, thank you, ma'am. And I'm looking at the same sheet. And so the reality of it is that, you know, to this point this year, we are down. I mean, we're actually at this point in the year, we're actually the lowest that homicides have been since 2013. Wow. So again, Um, you know, uh, we, we can't, we can't fight the data per se. I mean, it is showing the trend that is supporting our efforts. Um, as far as, um, I, I, I hear what you're saying about there being concerns about connectivity for, for, um, uh, victims, families, and obviously, um, in, in his absence, I will certainly say that I will pass that along to, to captain Duda and his unit. Um, you know, uh, because that's, that's something that if, if it's, you know, Legitimate, we're going to fix that. Right. And because they're owed that, um, but you know, there's really, again, Any one shooting, any one homicide is too many. And we're not going to, you know, the best that we can do is improve our response and improve our investigative processes. And I think we've done that and we've been effective. You know, but it also does come down to, you know, again, I don't lay blame on anybody. But, hey, I saw a creepy car roll by me yesterday. You know, the public is absolutely our eyes and ears, and they are the best source of information that we have. And as much as we try to expand throughout the city or be present, we will never, ever know more than you do. And that's one of the things that we've pushed through our C3 initiative and through any public messaging is that, you know, we need to know what you know. so that we can work from there. And that's the only way that we're going to have a truly healthy community, a safer community is that continued efforts towards working together. And again, the numbers are down. So I don't, there's really, you know, we want to keep them down, you know, so we're going to continue to do what we do. Again, you know, Sergeant Robler and his team have done an excellent job of intervening. and recovering firearms and investigating firearms. And then, you know, units like Sergeant Johnson and the C3 policing units, we're going to continue to expand those efforts. And as far as, you know, not so much personnel, but resources, availability, and so on.

One quick question, Councilor Martin, what unit is Sergeant Robillard over?

He's assigned to the FIU. I'm sorry, ma'am.

Oh, FIU, yeah. We're waiting for you to come to the May Square C3. We have some questions.

I can make a return if you request.

Okay.

Councilor Brown, I see you've had your hand up.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Being in Mason Square, first I want to thank you for your service. My dad is a retired captain, Captain Larry Brown. Like I always say, my superheroes wear badges, not capes a lot of times. But unfortunately, I would have to say something a little different to the case as far as being in the area. Ninety eight percent. So when you talk about them stats and all of that stuff. That stuff is skewed, it's erroneous as far as statistically, it has no statistic barriers because 98% of people When they call the police state, they're afraid to call the police station. They don't report the stuff. So you're correct. A lot of times with the public, they're not reporting the stuff. And I know people who call the police station, who when they call it, when they're going through that process of reporting it, the actual individual on the other end saying, give me your blood type, your license, your registration. It discourages people. I've had people complain all the time where they just hang up and don't report it. So I can assure you where I'm at, 98% of the people, they don't report it. I don't see the difference as far as the gun violence being lowering. I don't see it. It depends where you're at. So it's like saying, so for instance, did you hear about the shooting at the park the other day?

You're talking about Hubbard Park?

Yeah, you hear about Hubbard Park? Yes, sir. Now, I've asked way back when we talk about technology as far as a deterrent, as far as a camera. I know we got cameras, but I wanted a camera with a light saying this place right here is being monitored by the police with shiny lights so they know if you shoot right here, we see you. I've been asking for that for a minute as a deterrent. We have the technology. So even magazine park, you go there, there's people who sit there and they drink and smoke and do drugs right there in the playground alongside the kids. If we have a camera sitting there flashing with lights saying there's a camera right here, if you do it, we see you and we're going to come and prosecute you. We have to use, I keep saying, we have to use those cameras as deterrents and the technology. I believe people will stop doing it if they know, especially in our parks, if they know our parks are being cameras. I want signs on the cameras and let them know in certain common places that if you do something here, we see you. Because right now, we can't even be safe in our parks. So I don't know. And then another thing, right? You guys have issues in Forest Park. Do the state troopers, do they patrol Forest Park at all, Counselor Martin? Okay. In Ward 4... They have about hundreds of state troopers at night pulling over all the people, harassing them right in my area. And I don't understand why those staties are staying in my area if we put them there to stop gun violence and they only stay right there at the tip of magazine and right down near that casino. They go nowhere else. They're disservice to our police force because they're not properly, they don't even know how to talk to people. So I know with them staties, you guys are being harassed by them staties. But we got to do something with them staties too. If we're going to use them, we can't just have them crammed right there in Ward 4 in a half a mile block. Why can't they be up at Forest Park? So we definitely have to fix that. So I know a lot of people, they might say, hey, so yes, if you guys have gun violence up in your area, we're paying money for the state to patrol the area. But why are they always all in my area harassing everybody? So that's an issue also. I would want those state be around the whole Springfield. It does everyone a disservice if we already paid these guys. They're paid. And believe me, they're harassing the cops that are there too. So I do not like the stadiums being a part of us. But if they're going to be here, I believe we should use them throughout the city and not in one concentrated quarter of a mile. Forest Park need them too. That's all. Thank you, Counselor. Thank you. And thank you for your service again. Thank you.

Thank you, Sean. Thank you, Councilor Brown. Councilor, President Whitfield, do you have any comments off of Councilor Brown's that you'd like to build off of before we direct back to the police officer?

Yes. There are certain things about what Councilor Brown said that I agree with, like we can upgrade our technology with the cameras in the parks and you know, try to intimidate or scare folks from doing criminal activity. So I do agree with that. Maybe that's something that we could look into. However, what I don't agree with is the data piece. For homicides, the gun violence is not something that you can say isn't true or isn't right or isn't accurate. Maybe some folks are not reporting, but based on those that are reporting, these are the numbers that we have. And you have to say that across every year, right? If some people are not reporting in 2026, they weren't reporting in 2025, 2024, 2023. But based on the numbers that we do have, they are as accurate as they can be based on the data that is given to the police department. I do data-driven work. And so data is important. You're not always going to get 100% of everybody to do everything all the time, but you do take a sample size of the data that you have and you make a determination off of that. So you cannot dispute that we dropped in homicide numbers from, I think it was 10 last year to five this year as it relates to gun violence, not overall. Last year was 10, this year is four. 2024 was 13 and 2023 was 29. Those are indisputable facts that we have. So while I do agree with using more technology to capture some of those that are doing the offenses, I just don't want to put it out there that the data is inaccurate. The data is as accurate as what we get in. So it's skewed, like all data is not 100%, but it's accurate. Four is four, 10 is 10, 13 is 13, and 29 is 29. Thank you, Councilor Murray.

And for the record, I never said it wasn't accurate. All I'm saying is if you go with the information, the information sounds great. Yay. But if you go and you knock on the people's doors in my area, they don't care about them stats. If that's the stats and that's what they're saying the stats are, it's still not good enough in a way where people where I live at are afraid. Just like when we talk about statistically, when they talk about lowering the taxes, they said we statistically...

I'm not talking about afraid or unafraid. I'm not finished. I wasn't talking about that.

I'm not finished. I'm not finished. I'm not finished. I believe... I believe Councilor Martin is the chair.

And I believe you weren't called on. I was speaking and you weren't called on. You got off mute when you started talking.

So don't talk to me about procedure or protocol.

I don't want to be disrespectful either, but don't talk to me about procedure or protocol.

Councilor Martin, Councilor Martin, can you give me the floor, please, Councilor Martin?

Councilor Brown, you have the floor.

Thank you. And like I said, not trying to – when you talk about even – when you talk about the stats, we have stats saying we did the best when it came to lowering the taxes. But if you win to ask people, they're not happy. So statistically, yeah, we might be doing, yeah, a great job, no more murders, but go knock on my people's doors and I can assure you they don't feel safe. No one's clapping. No one's, you know, I know it's still a work in progress. I'm not saying that the police aren't doing a great job. But what I'm saying is we're far away. It's not getting easier. It's going to get worse. We're talking about kids now. Back in my day, you had to worry about kids carrying knives. These kids carry guns with switches, advanced weaponry. So if you're telling me it's getting nicer out there, I don't see it. OK, I know the cops, not only are they the new cops and the veteran cops there, I know they see these these younger generation, the things that are going on and what they have to deal with is just still at a whole new level. So I don't know. But I can go any any person in my if you can go to any person in my area and knock on their door and say, hey, do you think the crime is dropped?

you can get one of them to say yes I'll give you $1,000 so yes I'm just going to take him up on his offer and I want my money I'm going to knock on the door and I'm going to ask some people if I get one person to say they feel safer in your area I want my $1,000 alright

A couple of that would be you want to make sure.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a quick question for the captain. But before I do that, I want to address Erica for a second. What you said at the beginning, Erica, that you definitely do the right thing. You know, you're fighting for your neighborhood, fighting for the street and your house. And so don't let anybody tell you otherwise, because that's what will make true changes in our streets. I personally, I'm on the mindset, then I say this for them. You may break into my house. Good luck trying to get it done. That's just me, right? And so you do it the right way. And when it hits you close to home, I don't care what people say, it bothers you. It doesn't mean you're not sympathetic or pathetic as to what's happening somewhere else, but it's calm. So that's one. Two, Captain, I have also heard, just thinking about what Councilor Brown said in the past, I've been hearing for a while kind of like similar complaints of state troopers, which I know they've given to us as a compliment to help us out, and we're very grateful. But I have heard that before they're being concentrated in one area. And I've heard it not only from residents, but from cops themselves. The approach is on the city, but that's not the case. And again, so I am not the superintendent. I am not the state police superintendent. I don't see it on the briefings. I don't see it on the deployment arrangements. I'm just bringing that back to you. There might be a legitimate reason, Captain, for what has happened. I don't know, but I think it's something to maybe bring up the chain.

Well, of course, because it would be unfair at this point to speak to the deployment strategies of the MSP.

So I'm sure they're not going to be the general reason for that. But we don't know. Also, I want to ask you, Captain, obviously the numbers are down, and I'm not going to sit here and cherry pick because the numbers are the numbers. I also think that, as Councillor Brown said, to me, people have become more blunt, more in your face, and they'll do it. Classics. Listen, I personally, I believe that if you want to move home, and you want to wear one of those big masks, and fill it up with weed, and call yourself Chinon Chong, I really could care less. However, once you put it into the public domain, I'm going to care, and I'm going to care a lot. About two weeks ago, I literally yelled this. who just sat next to a fake. And he's rolling off the joint. And he saw me. And he says, oh, boss, good thing this is legal. I knew immediately that he was fooling me. That he knew he was supposed to do that. And he said, DJ, all right. I said, listen, I really don't care what you enjoy. But come on, God, you're next to a freaking gay kid. Right? And so So I think there's some components of that where people are losing some respect for common pieces. But the one thing I will say is that there must be something, and my question to you is, I would love to hear your perspective of what you think is working, that the crimes, specifically homicides, are down, and the shootings, and encourage you as you start preparing for the budget of next year to make sure that stays in game. Because whatever it is you guys are doing, we need to continue to, it's working, apparently, right? I mean, things changes constantly, but, so I know I'm just, I know there's a year ahead, but, you know, budget season comes very quickly. And so I won't go into that, but I would love to hear your thoughts as to why you think after that, in your perspective, you think this might be working, but obviously it is working because numbers are down.

Well, I think from a, From a proactive perspective, we've garnered significant success from the efforts of the FIU and their processes. Additionally, obviously, we've had more officers on the street, as you know. There has been higher concentrations of patrols. There's been additional details that have been dispatched to to toward certain events. So I think our presence has increased. I'd like to think that, you know, again, some of this may be trending because it's a, you know, if there's a national trend as far as decrease in violence, that it's, there is some sort of societal aspect to it, you know, where we still have bad actors within our communities. I think we're trying to identify them quicker. I'm not going to suggest for one second that the use of technology hasn't helped us significantly. And to the Councilor Brown's point, I would not disagree that increased visibility would not benefit us, but obviously there would be a need to leverage resources to discuss. And I just, I think we're just out there trying to do our best. Could we have increased communication with members of the community for those who want to make themselves known to us? And I think it's worked out. It's working. I mean, again, we're not done, but it is trending in the right direction. And I think we have to continue to leverage those resources that we are And if we need additional help or support, again, my biggest thing now is that I really want to try to work on those community groups that are working with youth in our communities to kind of get ahead of it and prevent. You know, it's great that we can intervene and stop things or we can arrest our you know, we can arrest and end events after they've occurred, but I want to stop it before it ever even happens. And so, I mean, we have to be realistic in looking at the group that are either victims or are perpetuating the violence. And I think we have to increase our efforts and work with them.

Captain, thank you for that answer. I have the utmost confidence in the police department. I know, I see it in my own eyes. You guys are there. You guys are doing the very best. Well, like I said, the union's chair. The cops cannot survive it. It takes a whole, what, it takes a village? It takes a village. Or it takes, like I like to say, it takes two at a time. And so for those people that are watching at home, if you see something, say something, report it. You know, you can finish all of it with a carrot. And it starts with you fighting for your home. On the street, but I still would have been said, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a quick question.

I think something I mentioned earlier, Captain was on Now that we're out of the consent degree or with the federal government. So we now have the opportunity to, you know, engage in like new purchase of technology and whatnot. You're saying that free us up.

Well, so Well, I'm certainly not going to speak to money. What I would say is that during the settlement agreement, we did leverage that opportunity to consolidate some of our systems to create a much more synchronous data package or technology package, which has, you know, helped us significantly with regards to, you know, use of force reporting and data specific to that and body work cameras obviously have gone a long way towards helping us do a better job maintaining professionalism increasing training so I don't know so much that it frees things up obviously nothing kills sustainability quite like money but I do think you know, the face of policing has shifted significantly. And it is relying more on data to give us, and again, it's to be the eyes and ears when we can't be present. And I don't know where the future is as far as that goes, like what the broader strategy would be for the department. But I think accessibility to information is only going to help our cause.

That's great. And I have another follow-up question as well. I know at the beginning, kind of the opposite of the summer, I think it was the district attorney and the mayor, they wanted to do like this big sweep. Does that, do you think, have any sort of bearings on why this summer might have been, back in the term, like tamer statistically or anything like that? Were those sweeps effective? How effective were they?

Well, without having any real knowledge of the offenses, were arrested for and any outcomes. I mean, I'm sure that that's something that we could look at and actually come up with an after action per se, as far as what that actually entailed. But I would be remiss if I spoke to that as far as whether or not, I mean, I'm sure it had an impact. I don't deny that at all, but to what degree, I wouldn't be able to speak to that intelligently.

That'd be good information. Before I turn it over to Madam President Whitfield, I do also want to, again, I know we acknowledged earlier, but I'm afraid to see you in the room. I'm just... Yes, how are you?

Good, thank you.

I want to, you know, obviously, I know you play a big role in the lives of our youth here in the city. I just wanted to kick your brain a little bit and see what you think is going on from your perspective. Yes, yes, yes.

So this is about us all going around... I'm an unseen component in my community as it relates to youth and social youth. So there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes and things like that. I work very closely with a lot of organizations, one of them being the DLJ Center. You know, I do a lot of volunteer time with the DLJ Center, but we run into a lot of barriers. She cannot hire certain people to do more than she would love to. However, we're doing a lot a street work, a high risk intervention. So a lot of people call me, like if there's such a situation, a fight take place, they'll call me back in contact with the individuals and try to resolve the problem with zero violence. That has happened in the past as well. So there's a lot of stuff we want.

Yes. Thank you for coming. President Whitfield, you had your hand up.

I just want to thank Nasir. Yes. Thank you. You've been out here a long time. I've called on you before. I want to thank you for the street work that you do because that's difficult is like getting out there and being out there and talking to these youth and even sharing experiences that, you know, we all have had experiences in our lives. Some we might not be proud of, but we turn it around and When you reach back and give back, that is like one of the most important things that you could do. So thank you for that. I wanted to let Milo know he owe me $1,000 because I got a text from Shirley Stevens that she feels safe. She lives over by the Roosevelt Ave area and he owe me $1,000.

You got to make sure you get some crack.

She's not. I know her. She's a realtor. But she said to get my money because she feels safer with the police being out there more visible, walking around and things like that. She said she definitely feels safer to get my money. So I wanted to come online and say that publicly to you so it's on record and everybody knows you owe me $1,000. That's so silly.

Councilor Brown, I saw you right there.

Yes, I want to reiterate what my colleague, Consular President Whitfield said. Nasir, thank you for the work that you've done. I think as far as the police. So you see the police there. I would definitely recommend you guys work with this young man. He has the ears of the streets. A lot of time there might be a gang war about to come and they're shooting and killing. He can actually go to a lot of these people and stop them from doing it. So he's somebody who you would want to know and work with. Fantastic. Been doing it for a long time. I think a lot of times when it comes to fighting gun violence and things like that, It's a collective effort. So a lot of people like him, people don't really, not everybody knows of his existence. And people like him in their existence. Because there's a few brothers out there and people out there, people out there who are you know, who combat in it, but they just, they don't, they don't get the support. And I know it's nothing about the police. That's not doing it. I'm just glad that we have a person you can find y'all can meet and know he should, he should be somebody who should be, be an organization funded by the city, the state, to work with the police. There's other people I know. That's really, to me, something that's going to help. If we start supporting the people who are right there in the trenches, day to day, day in and day out. So I'm just once again, just giving a shout out to Nasir and the work that he's been doing. Continue to do the great work. Don't let anyone discourage you. And I'm definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely a fan and appreciate what you do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No problem, Councilor Brown. Oh, I just want to see. And Erica, I know you want to come, but I do see Erica Cruz has actually speaking. Erica, would you like to say a few words or ask a question or anything?

Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you to Nazir too for showing up. I did send him the invite. I feel like he's a very important addition to public safety. He is literally on the ground doing the work. So once again, thank you, Nazir, for showing up, being here, and representing and standing up for your community.

Thank you.

Yeah, I wanted to commend you for the numbers. I am also a data driven individual. And I want to thank, is she still here? Councilor Whitfield? Oh, there she is. No, I'm here.

I'm here.

I want to thank you for bringing those numbers. And I also want to encourage whomever might be able to get those out to the public. Perhaps it's the police department or any, I don't know. You're probably not like, let's go to our own horns and you want to knock on wood about it. But there is a psychological effect of two things. One, safety and one, let's keep it that way. Safety and the fact that those numbers exist shows that we care to be back. We're tracking this. The second aspect of that is, look, the numbers are down. So I think that does promote a sense of pride in the police department and whatever other factors like Nasir or others that are making the rate of homicide decreases for them. And then secondly, there is a psychological effect of I don't know if those who are more likely to commit crimes are going to see the data and go, I don't want to commit the crime because I see that we're doing well over here. But I think as a city, it could be something to be proud about to say, hey, look, we are doing a great job. Year over year, this is declining. I can see the graph in the media. Look, it's declining. Let's keep doing that. Let's try to support the police department. And I know that there have been past instances of citywide dismay at the police department. So maybe this is an opportunity to say, hey, there is a very positive story here and things are going the right direction. What can we do to keep that up? And whether that includes extending outside of what the police department is doing, you know, in that type of kind of like report of, it's kind of like a public report on how things are going. And I, it's really nice to see those numbers. I don't know if other, the other topics you want to, you would want to, you know, ring to the public, but those are certainly really encouraging numbers. And given the conversations that I brought to you and that I've been having with people I know, I think that they would be, I mean, the people I know that are having conversations and I would hope that people in Councilor Brown's community who, You can bring these numbers to as well and say, now everybody owes Councilor Whitfield a thousand dollars. She's going to have multiple thousand dollars owed to her because perhaps that the people in Ward 4-2 could feel confident that things are turning around a bit. So thank you to everyone who brought a lot of intention and data to this meeting. And I really appreciate that. And I do in court courage if it can somehow make it to the public at large. I think that would be a positive thing for the city to have.

Thank you. Thank you, Erica. And officers, do you guys want to have any comments or anything like that that you want to wrap this up with? Anything else that wasn't touched on or wasn't answered? One quick thing. My hands up first. My hands up first. Let's have the officers speak. They'll go to you. Okay. Thank you.

Well, obviously, thanks for the opportunity. And again, Nasir, thank you for your efforts. And again, those are the immeasurables, right? Those are the things that you ask and you say, hey, what are you doing? Well, we're doing our part. but we're not capturing those events that didn't occur because of the successes within the community. And we would be remiss if we didn't identify the fact that we need to continue and expand those efforts for the prevention of the unknowns, right? And so, again, this is where, outwardly, we are the face of government when it comes to violence and crime, right? So we're going to become the points of contact when these issues arise, because we're the ones that are working with it directly. But again, you know, we have partners that are, you know, not thanked nearly as much as they should be. And I would absolutely, we'll make sure we connect. But I mean, like, I'm thinking a million things that we would like to leverage that for. So you know, we're going to do this together.

That's great. Before I pass off to President Woodfield, I do want to also clear up one that you would mention, Erica, is getting this word out there, too. And this will be posted on Facebook and social media. So I'll be sharing the link and sharing also. I hope you would, too. It would be a great way to get the word out and spread the good word to the community of the great job our police officers are doing. So, Madam President,

That's going to be my final comment. There was a big announcement earlier from the DA's office that 12 more guns are off the street. 28 people were arrested for drug trafficking. So if you all have an opportunity to look at that. I just want to thank the public safety officials for everything that they do for us because it's important and they're putting their life at risk. And I wanted to piggyback on what Councilor Brown said about funding. The foot soldiers like whoever not serious working with they should be funded, I mean real statistics real numbers and and I, and this is something I really want to go back to the superintendent so for the officers on the sergeants and deputies I really. We need real statistics on what the Shannon Grant folks are doing, not just people filling out a document so they are listing them as a, like when you do case management, someone might do an assessment form. And then the assessment form becomes part of your data, but you're not really following or tracking the success of the individual. We need to really dig into that data and see if these programs are being successful and not fund the same ones year over year. If they can't show up to the meetings, if they're not showing up to the meetings, because my understanding that Shannon Grant recipients have monthly or quarterly or some meetings that some just never show up to. If they can't show up to the meetings like everybody else and have the same standards, they can't come to the city council meetings whenever we invite them so we can get the information and the updates that we need, that's a problem. And those things need to be addressed and they need to be addressed in the contracts. If they can't commit to what is in the contracts, then they do not get the funding. You don't just get it because you got it last year. There has to be some different criteria there for the Shannon grant funds because it's taken away. from funds that could go to organizations of foot soldiers that's out there that's really doing the work like Nasir's organization. That will be my final comments. I just want to, one more time, thank you all and thank you for joining us. I have to go now because I need to eat.

Thank you, Madam President. Councilor Brown?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have to agree with Council President Whitfield. Um, she definitely took the words out of my mouth, uh, when it comes to that Shannon grant thing and combating a lot of that stuff. Um, what i do want to do uh would like to see after this meeting is to be able to now get up and to figure out um the camera setup in the different areas because this is something that i've kind of wanted to do as a deterrent i would even even look into maybe us looking to find um a duress box that we can put into different areas where if someone has an issue, they can push it and it goes into duress and the cameras come on. There's technology out there that we can use that is deterrent and also use with some of the policing, if we got the duress boxes and things like that. Um, so I, I know when I talked to the guy, the, the, the police officer who's in charge of the technology and things, um, he said he can do it. It would just be up to us kind of like, um, getting the money up to kind of do it. And I told him, I know we do it, but I think we should look into now getting some of those cameras in place, getting it marked, um, And in the future, I think we need to start as a body, start considering, are we going to use the technology? Because I know in Boston, they're starting to talk about it when it comes to those cameras and using those as far as speed deterrence and getting tickets and things like that, because that's going to come up eventually. And we would have to think, is it something we want to do? Is it something that we can do? You know, because now we got eyes in the skies, which it would be something I would be for. So they're looking, I know, talking about putting cameras up for speeding and traffic infractions. I know it's way down the line, but I still would want to use maybe some of the turns with the marking in the different parks and common areas to just do try to do that as fast as possible. If it would be, you know, if we can work on it as a body. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilor Brown. Well, I think without being said, um, I want to just finish by saying, you know, strong support of our police officers, our police department, anything that you guys need, is there anything that you guys want to have in a meeting? So we could broadcast news like this, or just give updates all, all the years I'm always, um, available, willing to work with your availabilities and support you guys and, and how I've already been. So, um, Without further ado, Councilor Brown, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?

Motion to adjourn the meeting.

Seconded. Ayes have it. It is around 4.50. I'm sorry, 5.50. Thank you, everybody. Have a good night.