Remarks by Doria Robinson
24 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
Yes. So I would like to request to move item 07 up in the agenda so that we could possibly hear it tonight. I believe this is an urgent issue to be able to understand and clarify for the council and the public the current state of our financials, the city's financials, and that it can't wait another meeting to give the direction so that the work can start. I'm sorry, what is the motion about? It's not a motion. It's a request to move the item 07 up in the agenda so we can possibly hear it tonight because I believe it's an urgent issue that we need to clarify our financial situation as a city…
I didn't know if anybody wanted to discuss it.
And maybe to clarify, this was not a full financial analysis research. It was basically presenting clear numbers for where we ended the past three years in terms of did we have deficits, did we have a surplus. and clearly outlining things so that the public can understand. It was not a full analysis.
Thank you. Okay. So thank you. This is a lot of information. And one of the things that I wonder about is investigation, it seems to me that investigation in general, by police has the potential of violating privacy, right? Is that, am I incorrect by saying that? There's always.
Yeah, so there's always a possibility that a police officer may violate the rights or privacy of individuals in the course of an investigation if they don't follow the rules, if they don't do things, right? I mean, this is something that could happen.
Right. I mean, I understand what you're saying. I guess what I'm saying is that, like, I have a question in my mind when it comes to the use of tools, whether it's the tool's fault or it's the individual who uses the tool's fault. And it's hard because I can go both ways, right? I think of restricting guns and gun access. I like restricting guns. But at the same time, I wouldn't I go back to the use of DNA evidence and how that was seen as a violation of privacy when it first was started. So I guess my question is, and this is where I might just stop, how is using something like an older…
So would the application of facial recognition readers to CCTV then change what you... change the data set, the slimness of the data set of CCTV if somebody was to use that kind of technology on that. Is that what you're trying to get at? Is that, I'm just trying to understand when a tool is evil as opposed to the person who's misusing it.
I don't want to interrupt you, but I also want to ask just two more questions before we finish. One of them is you said that in that kind of stack of technologies, ring cameras were a part of them. I guess I'm also struggling to understand, you know, if ring cameras are a part of that, that information is accessible, police officers use that information on a regular basis. How does that fit into this? I was interviewed today by a guy wearing sunglasses, and I thought they were just sunglasses. They turned out to be Google glasses, and he was filming me the whole time. I had no idea. Is that a…
It's a long night. Yeah, it's a really long night. I wanted to say thank you, chief Simmons. I think that what you did was all of our concerns that we expressed when it came to flock cameras and found an alternative solution. It may not please everyone because of much larger concerns about surveillance in our society and where our society is going. where technology is going. But you definitely followed through on the things that we asked you to do and I appreciate that. And I appreciate the time and effort and energy it takes to do that. I had a couple of just questions because I wanted to…
Thirteen. How many more? And those detectives work on what? How is their time divided?
So one of the things that I really struggle with when it comes to this question is not so much whether or not the cameras prevent crime. So I'm not convinced of that. But whether or not they help solve crimes. Yeah. And that comes to mind because I imagine that vehicle thefts would be handled by the four officers that are assigned to the felony union, is that correct?
For all of that whole category of crimes?
Where in from April to June in my district alone, just D3, There were 90 cars stolen. Yeah. And that doesn't include the 13 burglaries, the 94 thefts, the seven arsons, the one homicide, the 38 aggravated assaults, the 18 robberies, and the 12 sexual assaults, all just in my district from April through July. That's correct. This 13 people are all we have to investigate not just my district, but all six districts. Mine has the most crime. but all six districts, these 13 people. That's correct. Well, 12, because one is out.
So I have this concern that we're not addressing and quite frankly, just not giving a damn about the people who, there's people behind every one of those 12 people who were actually sexually assaulted. That was their bodies. And they are suffering in a state where they don't feel safe walking around. And whether or not their perpetrator was caught is most likely, you know? And these were just this one little window of time. I think you said to me once the number of backlog cases.
Yeah, and maybe I want to make that case too. I'm not so naive to think that just having a camera is going to solve all of these cases.
In fact, one of the things that I kind of wanted to get at tonight is that I actually would love to understand the data. I feel like... it is a really important thing to do, is to look at our data, what's another agenda item tonight, so I'm not going to totally discuss it, and actually Understand what has been happening with our with the window of use that we've had I think that's an important piece of the puzzle some of you may know I did put together a very unscientific study our survey But at least it was some way for me to hear back from my constituents and I feel like I also would like…
So I personally think that there's enough concern in the room for us to take the time to actually look at the data to make an informed decision. And I would like to move forward with what we can.
There's an actual contract that we are considering tonight to actually, we approved it, yes, on consent calendar. And so they need time to actually get that. We didn't approve it.
So there's a non-poll, but we're considering it tonight, and that would actually have this independent group that already works with our police department would pull together and actually assess the data on the use of these cameras and the periods that we've used them. So I would like to see that before we make this decision.
Can I ask a clarifying question about the motion?
Yeah. So I guess I'm wondering, Council Manager Zepeda, are you asking us to approve it to move forward or approve the contract? Because I wonder if there's a difference between doing some work to tee up a contract, but we're not saying, yes, we're going to enter into that contract, as opposed to saying, yes, we're going to enter into this contract, move forward, sign, sign, and then we'll use that clause to get out of it.
Can I ask a question? Yes. So are we excluding the requested six drones?
So that's the surveillance equipment, I believe.
OK. So it's not going to be possible to hear the other item tonight because we need to hear public comment. And it's just not going to be possible.