HomeMy WebLinkAboutfunding police department changes
Christian, Kevin
From:Troy Dean <troy.dean@icloud.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June 2, 2020 2:43 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:funding police department changes
Hello SLO City Council,
Please focus on diversifying local law enforcement and encouraging/seeking out POC to become
involved. Encourage/enable more POC to become leaders within our local law enforcement. Our
community needs to be held accountable by our own community, not by a limited group of
individuals.
During your upcoming budget reviews, please carefully consider funding to police departments. I, like many others, hope
we can change any systematic racism in the criminal justice system. However, I am not sure if more OR less funding is
the solution.
Rather, I think that changing what gets funded WITHIN police department funding is most important. Finding ways to
get more POC into police departments working side by side with current officers may have a larger impact than trying to
eliminate forces altogether. I would imagine that there is no amount of money in the world that can simply "re-educate"
anyone with current biases (conscious or unconscious) toward any specific race. But with different races working side by
side, I think not only can racially biased individuals be changed, but those within the community may feel more
comfortable with law enforcement if they see a variety of races, genders, etc. It should be a group that represents the
community, not a select group that represents power.
It is really cool to see POC protecting their own communities during protests that start to become out of control. POC
approaching other POC of color and telling them to return items from looted stores. It is also really cool to see white
people educating other white people during protests and any other moments during the past few weeks. It is clear that
no matter what your background, most people are more willing to listen to those who they believe has a similar
understanding of their own background.
I am just imagining a future where law enforcement includes white, blacks, and any other races working side by side to
approach any situation in the calmest, most understanding, and most just way possible. This is why I propose reform
that gets a wider variety of people into law enforcement altogether, rather than defunding it or decreasing numbers. It
is probably pretty difficult to have a society without law enforcement, so let's just make it as representative of our
community as possible.
Please focus on diversifying local law enforcement and encouraging/seeking out POC to become involved.
Encourage/enable more POC to become leaders within our local law enforcement. Our community needs to be held
accountable by our own community, not by a limited group of individuals.
Thank you for reading and taking note of the many emails you have received during these times.
Troy Dean
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