After a year of back-and-forth over initiatives to defund the police, D.C. lawmakers are again considering how much of the city’s budget should go toward officers and how much should be directed to other violence interruption programs.
WHECTV Created: June 09, 2021 12:41 PM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) $4.5 million dollars, that s how much Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren wants to cut from the Rochester Police Department s budget, and we now have a better idea of how that would work.
Warren said the city is working with RPD to retool the department to keep officers on the streets. She made it clear she does not want to see staffing affected by the cuts, especially in light of the uptick in violence and the number of retirements. We are only down two officers, Warren said. We are keeping and wanting to make sure that we keep the same level of police officers because we still believe that we have an issue as many cities across the country are having with violence.
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A St. Paul commission has recommended that some police calls be handled by non-officers and that the city create a new neighborhood safety and violence prevention office. Many of the suggestions should be adopted by the city as its leaders rethink public safety strategies.
The 46-member group convened by Mayor Melvin Carter said the city should focus on alternate responses to low-priority 911 calls in several categories. The Citizens League, a St. Paul-based nonprofit, facilitated the commission s work during the past five months, including holding town hall meetings to gather community input. The findings were presented to the City Council last week.
Rochester Police data shows 120 people have been shot in the city in 2021.
Evans said if he was elected, his office would declare a gun emergency for the city and appoint a civilian gun czar to focus specifically on gun violence. This is in addition to applying pressure on state and federal lawmakers to pass sensible gun reform bills. Evans also referenced his Youth Opportunity Agenda which he says would address the root cause of violence, an issue he says goes beyond policing.
Warren previously released her plan, an
However, after taking questions on his violence plan, Evans was further asked to respond to the case against Warren s husband.