pages: CityCouncil/2020-06-29.pdf, 16
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CityCouncil | 2020-06-29 | 16 | because of COVID, not because of anything that happened, which was a month and a half before the May 23rd incident; the policy change were an effort to protect the Officers and the public from COVID, which he reported to the City Manager and Council; in his interview on June 10th, he was not making a drastic departure from what was already being done; the statement about not going to mental health calls was edited as he went on to say that he had hoped to start a conversation at City Hall about how to approach mental health calls, which has now happened; unfortunately, that portion was not included in the television report, which is regrettable; he has apologized to the City Manager that it could have been done in a better way; the policy direction, which is a procedural thing, was already in place on April 3rd and 100% COVID-related; he did not mean to cause any consternation in the community or with City Hall; he was also trying to respond to the reporters on what he can say to the people of Alameda to make them feel safer and be responsive; it is important for everyone to hear the clarification. Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft stated she appreciates all the comments from the public; being able to walk in someone else's shoes becomes a useful attribute; she believes the youth today who have had negative experiences with law enforcement; she believes Alameda could do better; she met with the family whose car was vandalized and explained to them what the City is doing about racism issues in Alameda, including meeting about the issues; it is her hope to see some community task forces; the husband said he would love to be involved; as a former Marine, he protected and served people without knowing their skin color, which is the way things should work; the issue of unbundling Police services has some exciting possibilities; she has reached out to the coordinator of the CAHOOTS program; hopefully, he will be her guest this Friday at her Mayor's Town Hall; Alameda's Police Chief has reached out to the Eugene, Oregon Police Department to get information on how the Department works with the CAHOOTS program; there are also County services available; the Assistant City Manager has reached out to the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department Director to talk about how the City may be able to work with the County on some services; anything done should be fact-based and data-driven; she would like to look into more information on collecting and analyzing data on the number and types of calls received by Alameda's Dispatchers; it would be important in deciding how to reimagine the delivery of Police services and how mental health calls might be handled differently; the CAHOOTS program is unique because it is connected to a 30 year old health care institution, which is something Council would need to think about for Alameda; implicit biased training is important; it is also important to have stakeholders and Police at the table; she does not want it to be us against them and it is appropriate to have someone from the Police Department present when discussing the issue of Police policies and practices; she hopes Council would consider a youth advisory commission similar to the City of Oakland; it gives youth a voice in real time to talk about and raise issues; it is reasonable to say Council cannot do everything set forward at once, notwithstanding the public's desire to move quickly; Council will move with deliberate speed, but also needs to do it right; the one issue that could be set aside or referred elsewhere might be the laws that criminalize survivors; some of the topics might be good subjects for task forces; Council does need to talk about the size, mission, expectations and objectives of the task forces; she agrees with some of the speakers who said the process should be Special Meeting Alameda City Council 16 June 29, 2020 | CityCouncil/2020-06-29.pdf |