Dear City Council, My name is Rose Scott and I am a 19-year-old resident of Menlo Park, currently attending American University in Washington, D.C. I have grown up in Menlo Park my whole life, and I care deeply about this community and its future. I called into yesterday's town hall, and I appreciate Mayor Taylor and Chief Bertini taking the time to speak with the community. However, I would like to offer my remaining concerns, in addition to what I hope are tangible actions the city council can take moving forward. What I felt was missing from yesterday's town hall was a focused conversation on the systemic issues of racism and police violence and critical reflection about how that might appear here in Menlo Park. What the protests erupting around the nation have shown us is that the institution of police in the U.S. is rooted in racism (not just certain individual police officers). This is not only apparent from the repeated instances of deadly police violence against Black people across the nation, but in the history of policing in the U.S. The origins of the police force are slave patrols in the South and protecting the interests of wealthy business owners in the North. I think it would be naïve for us to assume that the Menlo Park Police Department (MPPD) is immune to the same forces of systemic racism that our country is built on. While I was glad to hear that MPPD has already adopted reforms like implicit bias training, limits on the use of force, and accountability measures, as well as adopting President Obama's recommendations for 21st Century Policing, I believe that reform is not enough. A prime example of this is San Francisco's police department, which has adopted all the same measures as MPPD but still was under investigation from the DOJ just two years ago for these same issues: https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/The-5-San-Francisco-police-shootings-that-put-the-12941386.php . For this reason, I urge you to divest funds from the police department and into community services such as education, affordable housing, job creation, and healthcare. I know this comes at a particularly pertinent moment as the city decides how to account for budget cuts because of COVID-19. We need to be investing in communities and NOT police, both now and in the long term. San Francisco and Los Angeles are good examples of two cities that have already committed to moving funds from police budgets and towards communities: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-leaders-say-they-ll-redirect-police-funds-to-15318633.php , https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-05/eric-garcetti-lapd-budget-cuts-10000-officers-protests . By investing funds into the Menlo Park community, we will be able to increase community cohesion, which has been proven by many scholars to decrease crime rates. These funds should be used not to support the use of punitive measures, which decrease levels of trust between community members. It is our duty to support the healthy development of our city’s young people, which means that we should not shut down our preschools or decrease our funding for the Belle Haven Child Development Center. I also call you to take a stand and demand that the MPPD end their partnership with Lexipol, a private for-profit company that wrote the MPPD policy. The Texas Law Review has published an extensive analysis of this company which included concerns over Lexipol’s lack of transparency. They market their products to police departments by claiming they will decrease litigation rates. I would argue that the main goal of police policy should be the protection of those they serve, not to decrease litigation costs by shielding officers from accountability. Furthermore, the MPPD has accepted many controversial policies from Lexipol that lack proper research. Our community should be provided with information as to why officers are allowed to view body camera footage before making a statement, or why shooting at moving cars is not banned. These kinds of policies are extremely sensitive and should be publicly discussed and have peer-reviewed research to back them up before they are codified and implemented. https://texaslawreview.org/lexipol/ Furthermore, I demand that you hold the MPPD accountable in banning the use of the carotid restraint. This form of restraint is very dangerous as it can easily turn into a chokehold, and recently Governor Gavin Newsom has called for police training to stop teaching it as a tactic. In the meantime, I urge you to consider forming a civilian oversight board that the MPPD will be accountable to -- we need community control. Movement for Black Lives has more detailed policy recommendations and examples of what civilian oversight boards look like on their website: https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/community-control/ As a young person in Menlo Park, this is the kind of future I want to live in, and I hope you will seriously consider the ideas I have put forth. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Rose Scott Received on Fri Jun 05 2020 - 17:10:52 PDT
