Legislative District 37

In my idealized vision, public safety is achieved through both individual and collective efforts to ensure that persons and property are respected by all and that just laws are applied and enforced justly. Of course, this overly-simplistic statement requires seismic changes in our societal attitudes and behaviors as well as a transformation of government policies, practices, and training. As a pragmatist, I believe incremental progress toward this vision can be achieved only by a myriad of much smaller and discrete goals or objectives.

To this end, I consider one essential goal in my big vision the transformation of our local law enforcement agency to eradicate the “us versus them” mindset on the part of the commissioned police officers AND on the part of the communities which are policed. In particular, I would focus on recruitment and retention strategies to attract a more diverse and locally resident police force so that communities – especially those communities with historical reasons to be skeptical of the police - will be able to recognize their neighbors and their family members among those enforcing our laws. To the extent that housing is unaffordable for police officers, I would encourage the employing jurisdiction to build public housing for these public servants. Another measurable strategy is to establish some type of long-term relationship-building practice or endeavor between the police agency and those communities with which no deep relationship exists. The point of these ideas is to create community with law enforcement in an effort to promote common cause and common identity.

In addition, we must continue to support ongoing training for our police officers to reinforce their roles as civilian peace officers rather than as municipal militia. Critical to this endeavor is the need to remove qualified immunity for the police. As long as law enforcement personnel receive special treatment for wrongful actions, they cannot be “in community” with those being policed because they are “above the law.”

Given my committee assignments, I can be most effective in furthering my ideas by facilitating policy discussions on the Capital Budget committee about the feasibility and value of public-owned housing for teachers, first responders, transit operators, and other public servants who perform essential work. I am also committed to furthering my work to embed work-integrated learning as a core feature of K-12 education, whereby students are engaged in career exploration and work- based experiences in order to apply their academic lessons. Most general purpose governments are well-suited to serving as full partners in this strategy because these workplaces include multiple types of occupations, from accountants to scientists as well as first responders. Finally, I will continue to support and advocate for better policies and practices of police accountability throughout the state as well as for additional gun control measures.

While not addressing the more common elements police reform or police accountability, I do think that we should consider re-thinking what a modern law enforcement or police agency should look like in light of the complex conditions of our society and the needs of our communities. Personally, I would like to envision an authority comprised primarily of a corps of community service officers to work with and to assist our public health teams, public housing navigators, and our many non- profit human service providers in reaching residents needing essential services and in helping to redirect people in crisis away from harmful or criminal activities as well as to provide services such as traffic and crowd control. I think that the conventional security aspect should be, in comparison, a less prominent feature of our police agencies.