https://forms.gle/PBYam2phJ4UTCFZj8

Community Agreements:------A reminder of our Community Agreements- Amplify Black experiences-Keep your phone or device muted if you’re not talking-If you’re able to, please turn your camera on-Step up, step back-One mic, one voice-Not a debate - we’re here to share and listen

--Reflective Question For Today--1. What kinds of programs and services would you want in communities to promote community safety?2. Share an experience in Long Beach when police were called to respond but it should have been handled by another entity (e.g. mental health professional or social worker), or maybe the police shouldn’t have been called at all. How do you think the situation should have been handled instead?3. What could some community-based alternatives to police look like here in Long Beach?

Invest in neighborhood councils to build community between neighbors and offer descalation training and conflict resolutions.

Art’s Recommendation: The Neighborhood App

Hire Police officers that live in yor neighborhood and that stay in your neighborhood. It can lead to trust and undestanding.

Develop a city sponsored call list for teams and programs before calling the police. 24 hours and during business hours.

Great comments Bri! LAPD has made an effort to hire officers that reflect the community over the past 20 years-- their officers represent the demographic populations of the City. As the second largest police agency in LA County, can we find out if Long Beach does the same?

With regards to the call list, I’d add on recommending that with calling the police, making it part of operating procedure to ask if callers prefer other services they may not know or have immediate access to knowing about so they can possibly refer them to a that entity

Bring back the city's mobile parks programs in different streets. Bring back block parties and incentives for neighbors relationship building and engagement. Beach streets in 1st, 6th and 9th districts.

Do community trainings to teach how not to call the police. My North Pine neighborhood mostly has calls involving problems regarding homeless individuals and mentally ill. Now our only options are calling the police.

Give folks instructions on how to have a personal relationship with your neighbor so they dont feel to run to the police for non violent. Decrease all the "Karen" tactics.

thank you justin

Appreciate your words, Justin

I was on a call with a District Judge in San Diego County and she mentioned that they have successfully created a Mental Health Team to replace the police when warranted; however, their resources are limited and they lack the people to answer these calls. Thus, the police are called out anyway because they have more resources. I think it will take a thoughtful balancing act to involve the community.

Invest in Whites for Black Lives or SURG Showing Up for Racial Justice trainings long term to build anti racist communities. CCEJ Californias for Equity for Justice can lead this work in Long Beach.

Explore ways to lower the level of distrust, name-calling and knee-jerk reactions on social media platforms (primarily NextDoor and Facebook). People get spun up very quickly over mental health/drug use/homelessness incidents—racism and “tase them” “get a gun” rears its head very quickly on NextDoor and FB.

Justin, great points! We should not stretch our social workers. The community is going to be key.

Thanks for the comments Justin. We do need to be sure we can protect our social workers that may be put in harms way on some of the calls they respond to, some making the ultimate sacrifice. There was some recent legislation in place to provide more resources to social workers -- Long Beach can support, if we don't already. And take a look at this recent look from LA Magazine on police use of force. I know there's still room for improvement, but some progress has been made in reductions in officer-involved shootings:https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/lapd-use-of-force/

I can be added to the que

Reform for police also needs to include programs within the police department to get psychologically damaged law-enforcement professionals help or even off the streets before a "George Floyd" incident even happens.

Speaker #1: Pat, Speaker #2: Deaka McClain

Expand the downtown street teams modle across the city. Provide them with living wages, resources and training to help the community not police them.

Reduce policing, increase community building.

Appreciate your comments Bex! I agree that funding for youth programs is essential, and tackling the challenge of lack of resources to improve community safety. Thank you for your work!

Carroll, I agree with what you're saying about the apps. My husband uses it and he shares with me that he mainly likes staying connected to them so that he can provide commentary to the contrary of some of the posts. He tries to speak with those who may be overreacting and sometimes it falls on deaf ears. But he would rather know what's going on since that's one of the most asscessible platforms. I completely agree though with how fast things can get spun out of control on social media. We need more person to person relationship building opportunities and NEW ways of caring for the community.

community building is so important…. from the neighborhood to the district to the city as a whole

lapd is still the #1 agency responsible for at least 349 killings (36%). 948 people killed from 2000-2020. I cant call that progress

Yes we need that parks program back like GRYD in LA City and Parks after Dark in LA County.

mappingpoliceviolence.org

Uplifting what so many folks have already called for- building meaningful, trusting relationships with our neighbors and people in our community is a so important for building safety. We can have community safety campaigns within our communities

The mapping website is a great one! And the numbers of people dying shouldn't happen at all. Take a look at the feature that shows the rates of violent crime, versus the rate of deaths by police. LB's violent crime rate is low, but the death rate is significantly high. LA's rate is on par with violent crime. We need to understand what is happening in Long Beach and what we can do to build that trust and improve community safety.

Thank you for the link Justin and the summary Sona

City needs to shift the narrative and everyday discourse from "bad people" to "people who have potential". The current narrative, discourse, policies, values and practices contributes to racist stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination which divides community and target Black and other community's of color.

I agree with Deaka that we need to have higher standards for hiring police officers and hold all police officers to a higher standard on a regular and formal basis.

yes thank you Sona great points!

Our trans community are often targeted and reporting goes uninvestigated.

I agree with Aarthi

Please prioritize Black Trans communities in safety plans and saftey programs.

I’m curious how we adjust the recruiting strategy for police officers in the future as we shift priorities. Their perception today such as it is, isn’t great, but as years go forward, the only people who might be joining, might not be the people we want protecting us. I still think we want to make this profession something that people want to join and be involved with our community on an active basis

the only other point I'd like to add to the conversation is to think of proactive approaches to safety and not only reactive. reallocating resources to youth programs and economic opportunities for our young people so their energy will have a positive outlet that benefits the entire community.

I agree with Aarthi

Thanks, Aarthi!

Blueprint for Shared Safety - sharedsafety.us

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 To everything you're saying Christopher. We cannot ignore the Trans experience and the lack of discussion surrounding keeping them safe.

http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/144473.pdf

I want to highlight Aarthi's point about those being impacted by crime should have a say in how their communities are being policed. Is there an effort to bring these sessions, or another outreach format, directly to the communities that are bearing the brunt of high-crime and other issues that impact community safety?

"LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to establish a new office to advance the county’s call for a “Care First, Jails Last” system that would provide care and treatment instead of jail whenever possible.Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas co-authored the motion, which immediately adopts more than two dozen recommendations by the Alternatives to Incarceration Work Group [ATI) and directs the CEO to set up a team to oversee implementation. [View the ATI report here.]"

http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/144473.pdf

Take away the oppressor's tools then liberation and healing will begin to happen.

A job can stop a bullet.

Right on Savannah! Care First, Jails Last. The prison system isn't structured to help anyone. Does Long Beach have programs in place to help people the come out of the prison system reintegrate into society so we don't see the cycle repeat itself? Job-training, workforce development, other community needs? If we can focus on a just transition in our economic recovery, we can begin to offer jobs to improve quality of life.

Hire local, hire disadvantage peoples, provide living wage internships that lead to jobs that can increase homeownership. Drop education requirements that block applicants with skills for certain jobs. Our educational systems are also racist and contribute to oppressing Blacks and other people of color.

Which ties to safety.

Yes, Bri!

Cut policing in half and let the bad apples leave.

Yes, Bri. The profession of police officer does need to be raised to the same level of a pilot or doctor. The FBI has much more stringent standards for agents.

In addition to the recent 911 alternatives motions in LA City and County, the LA County Board of Supervisors established and funded a Countywide Office of Violence Prevention to apply a public health approach to public safety efforts including funding gang intervention workers and community-led safety solutions like their Trauma Prevention Initiative in South. This would be another community-based initative to implement in our city.

Youth Justice Coalition and other lead that work.

*Trauma Prevention Initiative in South LA

The communiy plan

Learning so much - thank you to everyone who has shared! Small offering - encouraging police officers to engage with their mental health, getting therapy as needed. Thanks again all!

No change without redirecting resources.

which left out community benifits and gave developers more money and power.

Great points Savannah. We must hold decision makers accountable and bring in the voices of those who are being affected.

http://www.longbeach.gov/globalassets/economic-development/media-library/documents/business-development/everyone-in-economic-inclusion-listening-tour-summary-report-final

To Savannah’s point: How will we ensure that these ideas and plans are actually implemented, and not just bound and put on a shelf while the city does back to business as usual.

Take a look, it basically the exact same thing weve been talking about for the past few weeks

http://longbeach.gov/economicdevelopment/blueprint-update/

Here is the update page

a lot of awards for the mayor and the city

not a lot of updates on the work that was done

City should offer parents grants, free day/night cares, and stipends for child care.

"Creation of community hubs andresource centers as a way to fosterrelationship building, connect peopleto resources and services, and tocreate a unified community identity."

This is recommendation six

It feels like we're going in circles

heh…..well this is encouraging

But to Mario’s point, a ratemyprofessor version of ratemypolice, thumbs up. We do it for everything else

"Long beach should want to be the first city to do any and all of it"

YES

"Long beach should want to be the first city to do any and all of it"Yes let's be the leaders. Thanks Mario!

Go Mario!

I have a question regarding call outs in my downtown neighborhood to police/fire when an individual is down in a restaurant, parking lot or street. I see several fire vehicles sent to a single incident. How can this be reduced in their time of budget cuts?

The parking issue is an excellent concrete point about how low-level “minor” issues can ruin lives…

Invest in peace keepers who are systems impacted and gang related.

thank you Savannah for all of your shared input and resources. it brings up such an important point on how can we hold the city accountable and the officials listening that these recommendations will be turned to action and real change

Has anyone seen a good map of the stats for crime rates in Long Beach? We had a presentation on other social vulnerabilities in our city last week, combined with the climate and public health threats these communities face. These same communities also experience high crime and may have the impacts of increased policing.

Such valuable insights. I am especially moved and encouraged by the input from Savannah, Christopher, Aarthi. But I'm appreciative of everyone's comments. Such a learning experience.

We should be critical about crime data. "High crime" also correlates with "highly policed".

Sharing the maps I've seen in the attached

*Meaning other communities are policed less but may have comparable rates of criminal activity.

Are there any consequences for those who file false reports? Like those who use the police to threaten others...

Exactly. Thank you Chrysta.

Cut all policing in half. Offer a moratorium on all police spending for 10 years.

Predatory towing is another parking problem in our city. I see cars towed at Burger King next door and the cost is astronomical. There are also kick backs to reports from businesses. How can the city allow these businesses to operate in our city?

I think there have been 12 shootings in Long Beach over the past 6 days... someone may have the most recent number on this. Plus a violent attack by armed men on a food vendor. It's terrifying. How do we improve community safety and give the communities the support they need?

That wasn't my point Tom. Are you actively engaging the community you are trying to support or jst casting a wide net?

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS TOM?

We need to hold accountable neighborhood groups like East Long Beach Association with those signs saying "We Call 911." Not only is that a potential life-threatening call for some, but it's also an egregious waste of public dollars and officer time. 911 is not our customer service rep and we need our East Side residents to be held accountable (perhaps a fine for these calls) when they use it that way.

New members to Long Beach, like myself, should be aware of the resources available and alternative numbers to call. Otherwise, they go unused.

We do need police in the forums in order to bring about change and unity.

We do not need police in the forums for public safty

To clarify: my comment was about how harm is often rooted in people not having their basic needs met, and that long-term, proactive community safety involves investing in transforming economic, housing, and holistic health disparities

Yes, Savannah!

yes thank you

Thank you for naming that Savannah

yes

Yes—city staff needs to read these comments in detail. Checking the boxes is a real danger…

Well said, Chrysta.

Its a big comment to miss Tom

Thanks, Chrysta, for your thoughtful moderation here.

Thank you for hosting this session, and for all the resources provided. Looking forward to the next steps, and to see how we move on to solutions.

Name white supremacy as the root.

Yes

^

Appreciate you Chrysta! I just couldn't let the recap happen without naming the cause.

I appreciate everyone's time and patience

Unfortunately I need to leave the call. Thank you to everyone for being here, for what you shared, and for listening!

Its weird the Nextdoor app was named before systemic racism in the police department during this safety breifing

Very well done, Chrysta.

can there be anotheryouth and education session?

it is needed

Thanks all!

and systemic racism is not just in PD, but in all our institutions that have impacted our quality of life: https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/