Hi all, I know you are meeting today to discuss police funding and the city budget. I've been a resident of Menlo Park since 1997 and am proud to call Menlo Park my home. I support our MPPD -- my only interactions with our police force have been positive, and I have even donated to the POA from time to time over the years -- but I believe that other services must take priority over our already-very-large police department in this time of economic uncertainty. We need pool services in Belle Haven more than we need a $450K mobile police vehicle. We need services at Onetta Harris more than we need one police officer for every ~500 residents (both PA and RWC do just fine with 1 officer for every ~1000 residents). We desperately need our child care centers to be operating -- perhaps even beyond their current capacity, given other child care center closures. In short, my family is asking for a reduction in spending on the police force. We'd like to see something comparable to what San Francisco is doing: a 15-20% cut. That money must be put towards providing stability to our community through this pandemic, in the form of community services. On a related note, we had a clearly-impaired man pound on our door randomly last night here on Johnson Street, asking for someone who doesn't live here -- he was disoriented, but we hesitated to call the police. We didn't need an armed officer to come deal with the situation -- we just wished we could get help from someone who knew what to do (did he need a taxi? was he having a medical incident?) I'd be very interested in Menlo Park exploring more of a community policing model, where we have city mediators/counselors or at least unarmed officers who can assist in situations like this. I've been following all of your Council careers, some for years, and I am proud to have you all representing us. I hope we can work together as a community to continue funding essential city services, and cuts to the police department seem like such a clear path forward. Received on Thu Jun 18 2020 - 16:04:14 PDT
