City of Evanston, IL Rethinking the Organizational Structure, 3 Nov 2021

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From YouTube: Rethinking the Organizational Structure 11/3/21

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Rethinking the Organizational Structure 11/3/21

A

A

uh Hey sarah, do you mind emailing out the uh the action plan? I was able to pull it up on my.

B

Phone, I don't know how to find it on here.

C

Yeah also my computer, my computer crashed today so if somebody could share screen that would be, I can't present it, but I can like talk about it if that's helpful, but I can email it too.

A

um uh Councilman marie, would you mind: what's great sharon.

D

I'm not capable of doing that. I'm.

B

On a phone yeah, I'm on the phone too hold on, let me uh let me try to pull up.

A

For those joining us we're going to start around 605, I'm just trying to work through.

C

Can I put the link to it in the chat instead of email or.

A

ah Yes, you could do that and then I'll.

B

Pull it up, okay,.

D

E

F

Good morning,.

A

uh Can you drop it in the chat one more time here.

E

I don't see it.

B

A

B

C

Thank you, yeah.

E

E

Let's see if I figured out how to finish your content.

G

Hey y'all, I just wanted to say: hi, I'm gonna stay on camera tonight. I'm uh battling a sinus infection and I'm 37 weeks pregnant. So just all in all just feeling like a real superstar over here. You all don't need to see any of what's going on so.

E

But I am there.

G

Listening so no.

B

Take care of yourself.

B

A

I think this is your first meeting if you want to um one quickly, introduce yourself to the to the group. That would be great and uh I don't know if you can help us out with with screen, sharing or or make it so. I can share my screen, but we have a presentation today.

F

Hello, everyone- I am a graduate fellow um in the city manager's office and I am helping support the reimagining public safety committee and I will get to work trying to figure out how to make it. So you can um share your screen. Is there that you but um councilmember burns um who needs to be able to share their screen or is there someone else.

A

F

A

uh Sir you're not able to to do it, you want me to.

C

Remember I'm on my phone. Okay.

E

Yeah, you can yeah.

A

You can uh yeah you can. If you allow me to do it, I can share my screen. Okay,.

E

A

I thought your glasses was blue or purple for a second I was gonna say: that's super fly, but.

F

No, no yeah the blue light glasses, like the computer light back. So I can't see me.

A

Welcome to the city, man, um all right.

A

Okay, so while we get this going uh again, this is the a subcommittee rethinking the organizational structure, a subcommittee of the reimagining public safety committee meeting. um Today we have one of our committee members, but also a.

B

A

Of evanston fighting for black lives, sarah bogan, who is going to walk us through their action plan uh the defund and action plan that includes.

E

A

Lot of many recommendations that would have a a fundamental impact on the organizational structure of the everson police department, which is why I felt like it is. It would be, it's really important to have their voice and their ideas included in this ongoing conversation that we're having. uh I am we're trying to change the permission, so I can share uh my stream and actually um matthew, I'm logged in under with my phone, but also under another device. So if you could enable it for, if you could tell which one is the.

A

Maybe freeze ipad, I think that's it. I should know what it is, but I think it's freeze ipad. I think that's it.

F

um Is it the document in the um chat.

A

It is you want to just share it from your head yeah. I.

F

Think so, because okay yeah.

A

A

Cool so uh matthew's gonna start sharing the screen um it. The the document is also in the chat so feel free to you can access it on your phone ipad, whatever device you're on, but the document. The action plan that we're going to take a look at is also in in the chat um yeah. So let's jump right into it. Sarah, if you want to introduce yourself and the organization and a little bit about the action plan and feel free to guide us through it. However, you think is best.

C

Thanks, my name is sarah bogan, I'm an organizer for evanston fight for black lives. Last summer we worked with someone.

C

They would like to remain anonymous, but their pseudonym is t.s mayaki and we wrote a 27-page action plan for how to defund epd and effectively reorganize it financially and position wise so that we're not harming black and brown community members anymore.

C

I've lived in evanston my entire life. I graduated from university of illinois a little over a year ago with a degree in education policy, and now I live in the city of chicago working with the non-profit.

C

That's just about me, so we can start it's a very long document, so I won't go through the whole thing, because the first half is really an introduction background and evidence on police misconduct and harm caused in evanston to black residents. um Evanston fight for black lives as an abolitionist organization. So we believe that policing is inherently racist and that reform ultimately won't solve the issues we're working towards. We have to eventually cont completely rebuild this institution, um but these are some steps that we can take towards. That.

C

Defunding is the first step towards abolition um and I'll also say that this took us a long time took us months to make and it had it got zero use. Or you know this is the first time that it's being like seriously introduced as anything evanston could use, which is very exciting.

C

But that being said, we have not put any more work into it, since it didn't have much of an outcome, and so it's a little outdated in terms of alderman's stance or council member stances, um and it's talking about the 2020 budget, not the upcoming 2022 budget, um so things like that will be updated if this becomes a serious um document that we could look at again um and then yeah. So if you could scroll down to um how to begin the defunding process, that would be great.

C

um So the philosophy of- and I this I I recommend everyone reads it after this- to get the details, I'm really just giving an overview, but this is based off of ts's model.

C

She was an r.a for and worked on, a college campus for six years, and so the philosophy of this plan is based on how higher education uh handles responding to like emergency response, and they um always do it unarmed and with a focus on de-escalation rather than force and yeah, so also working on holding officers accountable before harm or death or injury has occurred rather than after and so part one. I'm sorry I'm having a.

C

If you can scroll to part one just so we can use the document as we go is talking about focusing on mental health, drug misuse and then sexual and domestic violence or sorry yeah. You pass you just you had it at the top. The headings are kind of not easy to see.

C

Yeah perfect, um so we've broken down the department into having funds going into programs based on the types of calls and emergency situations that officers are expected to report on, and part of this is, is working towards the root, mitigating the root causes of issues to prevent the emergency calls from happening, but then also how we would how officers would respond when they get the call.

C

So we are working from the basis that officers and people in public safety should have far more expertise in training than they do, because, right now, officers are not equipped to handle what they're happening so for sexual violence specialists they would have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in sociology or a related field, and then specific knowledge and training, as it relates to sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking and a certificate from a certified sexual violence. Training program.

C

These officers would be unarmed. They would be um and and responding to calls if they would have the option to have an armed officer, but they would be leading the call. um And then we have mental health, drug and alcohol abuse specialists.

C

These uh these officers would have again either an associates or bachelor's degree in psychology or sociology drug abuse, a related field and extreme expertise in how to handle people who are experiencing this and again. They would also be unarmed.

C

Have the option to bring an armed officer at their discretion so, depending on the type of call they're getting what they think they're responding to? If they feel that there might be dealing with a violent person, then that would be a time to call in someone who's armed, but for the most part, these are not response. These responses aren't happening with uh with with weapons.

A

And sarah quick question just just.

C

A

I understand with this: do you see this role um being a part of the evanston police department or some new department or the health department? What what was your organization thinking about where this these positions are located.

C

Yeah, so the idea would be- and this is I guess, the the order of this document might not be in the best order, but the idea is that we would analyze every officer that currently works for apd and gauge their willingness to adapt this new public safety department. We wouldn't call it. I don't want to call it policing, because I don't we want to change it right, but it is. It would be the current system that exists just completely changing it.

C

So if officers are willing to get so and also part of it is that the funding? What we're talking about part of d funding would be putting a lot of funds towards the education that is required to fill these positions.

C

So if officers are interested and willing to work for this new entity and are truly committed to public safety, then they would go on to get whatever trade uh education certificate further that's necessary and that would come from the police department um like that'd, be part of the rerouting of funds for the transition period of how long, however long that takes um yeah, so it would be it and it would also be.

C

Would these folks have to be officers or can they be filtered? It could be either. So it's if officers are willing to go, get the education or if um we can hire outside people, who already have this expertise and yeah. If that makes sense- and please stop me and ask questions at any point- and so yeah part two is how we would reorganize all of the departments.

C

So this part is really about addressing the misuse of the police union to protect problematic officers and departments and really making sure that as a whole, their interests are for the residents and not each other.

C

um And so when we look at like police chiefs and the lieutenants and the people who are in charge those people, um if you scroll down, there's a list of yeah. So like this perfect sorry a little higher sorry just under. If you see a police chief, lieutenant.

C

Yeah, so they would have um again associates or bachelor's degree, and these are people who we would expect to have already. A lot of experience in policing, they've already had to respond to domestic violence, calls to drug misuse and so just kind of furthering their education and training in uh cultural competency. All that so that they are able to then train officers under so conflict resolution officers would be ones who respond to less uh risky calls so violent.

C

uh I'm sorry, noise, complaints, disturbances, traffic accidents, um things where you're not gonna need a weapon to be there. These are unarmed officers that would have the option to bring in the tactical officers the armed officers same as the sexual assault and drug misuse opposite officers. But these people, for the most part, would be unarmed and using their discretion of when they need to call in an armed officer in case and again, they would be leading the charge, the armed officers there, as just as backup that's the tactical and detectives tactical officers and detectives.

C

Those are the people who are responding to the more serious crimes where we would need potentially a weapon, um but this is where we would have to like explore like training officers in jiu, jitsu or hand-to-hand, combat or things where we're giving them the tools where the weapon is truly truly the last resort and then having a chief diversity and equity and inclusion officer.

C

This person wouldn't be within the ranks of the department, but they would report directly to the mayor or city manager, and they are someone with extreme knowledge, education and experience with diversity, inclusion, race, pedagogy social justice theory, and they are monitoring the entire department to make sure that everyone's on their p's and q's.

A

And do you see that position as again part of this new department or an outside agency, maybe that reports directly to council or to the city manager, or how do you see that networking.

C

Yeah this person would be the an outside. This person would not be, I mean in terms of like, are we talking in terms of like salary and who they report to? They would be reporting directly to city manager or mayor or council, not the chief.

A

uh Kimberly walton had a question kim go ahead.

H

um Oh sorry, can you hear me now sorry about that um nice to read this thanks for all the thought. I just wanted to say that um I think um there's a so I'm on the equity and empowerment committee and we got a report about um something in the city called the ready committee uh council member burns.

H

I don't know if you heard about that or if they've, given you all a report, but it's kind of um something that kimberly richardson is leading and it's a journey in terms of um bringing diversity, equity and inclusion practices and frameworks into the city, and they do have some representatives on there from the police department.

H

So I just wonder if you know, as in they're looking to pilot, I think some projects, so I just wonder if there might be an opportunity to see um if there is some willingness and some support in terms of what they're already doing through the ready committee and what they where they, the vision that they um are trying to pursue.

H

um As far as you know, the police that they already have participating and just general support for how this might look if we were to actually pursue this, um I love it. I think it's a good idea, um and then the other thing I was going to mention as well is I'm on the other um work group, one of the other work groups um for getting our name, violence prevention, um and we have been talking broadly about an office of neighborhood safety.

H

And so I wonder if you might think that any of these roles you have here could fit within a framework of something like that, where you know we haven't really figured out if it's part of the police department or for the separate department or whatever.

H

But we've we've seen some successful models where there's this office of neighborhood safety concept, and it sounds like there are some parallels here, and so I just wondered if you had heard of that, and if you thought that the roles and responsibilities here could potentially fit in an office of neighborhood safety.

H

um If we were to, if the other work group were to recommend that.

C

um I'm not aware of that of like the details of that, but I definitely think it could be possible. um I think one thing that would like, I feel like it's important, that it's a cohesive department I feel like if we separate these roles into a bunch of different you know, departments not working together.

C

That could pose some risks. I think of people who has more power, who has more say our tactical officers and detectives. Just you know, I don't know. I think that it definitely is worth the conversation and trying to combine this with what's already happening and what's already in conversation and how we can like. I said we wrote this over a year ago um before anything on this committee has started happening, so it can definitely be adapted and shifted and we can try and make it things work together.

C

I definitely think we shouldn't like silo off into a bunch of different community safety things. While we still have epd leading the charge.

A

Yeah and I'll just quickly say we I think we can have um the committee- that's, I believe, kim, as you said, an internal committee that is of staff, that's organizing themselves around some equity goals, and we can certainly have them on just before a future meeting to give us a similar presentation that they provided the equity committee. um So we can work on that, um but sarah, if you want to for the second time if you want to continue, but thanks for those questions kim those are good questions.

C

Yeah, um I don't have much more um so if you just scroll down, I think the hiring process is interesting, so we're hiring and recruitment changes. I'm just honestly going to read these really quickly, but so all officers that would be all police officer searches would take place with at least three people, including the police chief and the hiring manager interview. Questions would be created and used for all candidates who are screened across all roles and they would be made with the person in charge of equity and inclusion, as well as an outside.

C

Contractor and interviews would have case study scenarios with rubrics that are focused on policing in black and brown communities, and they would be assessing how officers are with prioritizing the escalation techniques and using their cultural, competency, education and problem solving without weapons, and I think, and then, if you go to the bottom, it's um having the public also be a part of not the whole public.

C

But members of the community are part of this hiring process as well, and it starts with again auditing the entire police department and seeing who is willing to go, get further educated, um complete these certificates. I like putting money towards more training without completely like implementing this, these educational minimums. um We just don't believe that it will actually be effective, no matter how much people are kind and nice and want to be uh protective of their community. If we're not trained, everyone has biases if people aren't educated, if we're not setting the bar extremely high.

C

um We're gonna just continue to experience, violence and harm, and that would happen with inter interviews where officers stand on the black lives matter. Movement on black lives in general. That could be done with the bias test that can be done.

C

Also people every single officer's history should be looked at and if they have a history of violence or targeting or harming people of color in the community, that's termination unless they're willing to address their biases continue education like it. I think the. In summary, the main goal of this plan is to require a lot more of officers um to be qualified to work in this setting um yeah.

C

So that's and then the second is the the document finishes is where to put the reallocated funds, we push for parks and rec health and human services and in the education of the officers again, I would encourage everyone to actually read this document, because this is a very. This is definitely a high level summary um yeah. Are there any other questions.

A

Yeah, let's open it up first committee members: I think we have kim councilman reed. um Do you have any questions and if not we're gonna, um kick it out to the community at large for questions.

D

I'll just uh say, thank you, sarah, it's a great presentation as well as uh thank you to the entire group for uh uh taking the labor of putting this together. I'm on a meeting.

C

A

Any other questions.

A

um And then community at large anybody who has has uh taken the time to join us this evening, which I truly appreciate, uh kadeem, if that's your, uh how you pronounce it. I know you mentioned something earlier. So if you have any questions or comments, love to hear from you.

I

Perfect pronunciation um and thank you, sarah. I really appreciate reading this. One question I had was in terms of so: if there are officers who want to take advantage of the opportunity to get a different degree and they're willing to be trained, where would the savings come from? Is it the idea that it would come from for officers who decide? That's not what they want to do and leave like? Where would that savings come from.

C

Yeah um that would ideally come from the police budget, um so in in reallocating I mean I don't know what it's like: the chicken and the egg. I don't know what comes first. I think it would first be auditing the department recognizing who um first of all is not harmed people.

C

uh You know overly harmed black and brown people and is qualified to offer to want to continue, um and then you know figuring out where they want to be if they want to be in the mental health, sexual violence or if they want to be in drug misuse. If they want to be a tactical officer of all those where people want to be, and then recognizing what education background, they already have what needs to be furthered and then looking at the budget as a whole of okay.

C

How are we redirecting funds to make sure that we're getting necessary personnel, but I also think um pushing for people who already have that those qualifications is also going to be like one of the stronger ways to go.

I

Awesome. Thank you, sir yeah.

A

J

Yes, um thank you, um I'm wondering um what is this uh committee's um feelings or how they feel about the the possibility of the seven open police positions about them being filled this year, um because they were talking about that in the budget and they're talking about the need to fill those positions, I know many of them are administrative and I think at least one or two actually, um actually you know police officers that are street police officer. So I'd like to understand, what's you know um the committee's position in regards to that? Thank you.

A

Councilman reed, I know you brought this up in our last council meeting. I don't know if you want to provide a quick kind of summary of what is on the agenda.

F

A

The budget you know proposed.

E

A

What your comments were around it at the last uh special city council meeting.

D

Yeah I'll just very quick, and then I see that sarah wants to chairman. uh So yes, you're right, the majority of the positions are civilian positions, so I you know I personally uh somewhat supportive of those positions, uh but there are three positions: uh two management level positions.

D

And uh one um patrol officer um position that that are to be filled, and so I have requested and will request uh that the police officer position be held um vacant.

J

Thank you. I do have one more question. Sorry um also. I was just trying to see what what's, um I guess, the status or what's your position on uh police officers at um eths, um I know what I understand. You know what district 65's position is and I think that the police officers aren't there anymore, but I understand that they're still at eths. So if you can um tell me what you know this committee or your position is on that, thank you.

A

I know we have it coming up for a discussion in some sense in that I believe um so. Councilman marie put in a referral to have a discussion about the sro program at district 202 and then I believe uh and councilman reed correct me if I'm wrong, but councilmember fleming um submitted or requested a budget memo that would also prompt a discussion about the sro program. But um in terms of my personal opinion, I I appreciate sarah and other members of evans to fight for black lives.

A

They put out a candidate questionnaire during the election and I believe- and sarah can correct me if I'm wrong. One of the questions was: would you vote on a budget that that had the sro, the 202 sro program in there, and I said I would not- and I plan to um um I plan to stick to that commitment and councilman reed. I don't know if you want to speak to the topic, but in a much broader sense we are going to have a discussion about it.

A

Coming up at some point, um once the the memo is provided by city staff.

C

um And personally, just for that first for the first question on the seven positions, um I think all should be held open, considering that epd has um so much human labor per residential like we have the largest amount of officers per residence, um and I think that, if we're a committee that is supposed to be reimagining, the structure it wouldn't make, it doesn't make sense to me to be uh continuing to continuing to bring on new people, especially if we're trying to actually implement a plan like this, where we're auditing the every role and where people stand.

C

If we hire someone and then they're not and they're, not a fit for this new plan, you know what what happens then. So I I personally think that all positions should be held open until as a committee, we've decided what to do with them um and yeah. I'm part of evanston fight for black lives and I'm definitely against sros and eths.

D

I I will just chime in and say that, uh particularly you know. Sir brings up a good point, uh and it's made me think that maybe even the commander positions or the management positions should be held as well, since we are in the process of hiring a new police chief and before we promote folks. Maybe we should let uh you know, provide that opportunity to the new police chief and hold those vacant as well.

A

I think another important part is, I think, the you know we heard from the police union at our last special city council meeting and I think part of what is not being discussed. Is that the I the the plan, although we don't really have a plan right now to do it, but we need one is uh to shift responsibility from away from our police department into some other. um You know, department to respond to well-being, checks and other calls that again don't require an armed officer, and unfortunately, we haven't gotten far enough in that process.

A

We, um we posted an rfp for our alternative, alternative emergency response, programmer system and um didn't get a lot or any responses to that rfp and that was to contract out the work. I am of the belief that this should be something similar that I think would ever say. Fight for black lives calls for that should be within our depart, our own department. I don't think this is work that we should contract out for um the risk.

A

There is if the organization we contract with, has a large coverage area that they serve, well-being, checks and other really important calls. Could go, uh you know unaddressed and we may not have folks responding to them, which is definitely not what we want to do.

A

We want to send the right public servants to each call in a timely manner and in fact we should be- which I don't know if you have this now, but there should be performance metrics that are public posted on our website that let us know as a community like how quickly we are getting to these calls and not just anybody but a public servant that is trained uh to respond to these calls.

A

So um I think that's one of the problems that the plea, the police department, as it exists today, is saying: look we still have all of these responsibilities and until we shift it to another department or shift the responsibility to some other group or entity, we're still the ones responding to these calls, and so it's up to us as a counselor to say: look we have this is the alternative option and we need to move.

A

um We have funding for it and you know we understand how to how to work it into our current budget and we need to move forward in doing so. I I don't think we're there yet, but we need to be- and hopefully we can get there in this in this year's budget conversation councilman reed, I don't know if you have any other thoughts, but um beyond that too, we can open up to any other questions or comments.

A

I see somebody might have written in the chat there.

E

Are still escrow, okay,.

A

Oh, there are still sros associated with this g5. They are no longer in the abilities. There are cereals associated with this divide, they're no longer in the buildings. um I don't really understand that jenny.

F

If you want to.

A

Elaborate on that comment, I think we have anya here on the call who could clarify anything we need, but if you want to start with just clarifying your your comment.

K

So the budget is for officers um the the last years and this year so, and so two are in. My understanding is two: are at eths and two are with district 65. They have a, they have an sro plan, so it seems clear to me that that's what's happening. So, if we're deciding, you know how to divvy out officers, I the question is: why do do we need them? Is that a place to save money.

L

K

L

Yes, this is anya from district 65, I'm not necessarily here in that capacity, but I can clarify that in 2019 we did make the decision as a board to ask that sros be removed from our campuses in terms of interactions with students and families, and we did request at the time to the to the mayor at the time to consider shifting those budgetary dollars to the district to compensate for us meeting the express needs of children and families with those dollars, and there was never a response, and so the city made the decision to continue to maintain those positions as assigned to our buildings for emergency planning.

L

However, those emergency planning discussions do not entail any interactions with students or families and are only involved, walking the perimeter of the building and doing other trainings, for it's called alice training for emergency situations. That might happen in school buildings.

A

uh Jenny, do you have any follow-up thoughts or comments before we move on.

A

K

A

K

I mean I just it's just I guess it's just not clear to me that that this is where we want to spend money. I I don't know, but I'm I'm not at all clear that I'm I'm not on board at the moment.

A

Sir, do you have any thoughts on kind of the current? I'm going to say relationship is just what what's happening with sro is that you should fire crowley based on what we just heard from board president anya.

B

Tanya booty.

K

C

I mean if they're, not interacting with students, are the students seeing them anya I mean I guess yeah I don't know. I think it's from like I I looking at the big picture of the department.

C

I agree with jenny in terms of like where our dollars are going that doesn't seem necessary. um I think that there's a way to fit into this new action plan uh a way to make sure that schools are safe without having armed officers uh on campus, but.

L

Yeah, so I just want to specify that this was not per request of district 65. This was yeah um uh per the resistance to the request of actually district 65..

L

We did not see that it would be necessary to have officers assigned to our district, because I perceive the public safety entity of the district of the city to be obligated to provide public safety to our schools without having a particular subset of officers assigned to us. That was a decision by the department at the time about how they wanted to organize themselves and what we asked.

L

What was what what was within our purview in terms of the experience that children and families were having and that we did not want children and families to be interacting with officers for any type, any unnecessary, non-emergent reason in our in our buildings during the school day, and so that is the priority that we have as a district. The city of evanston has decided how they want to how you all want to allocate dollars and organize your public safety department. But our expectation is that you know the public safety department do.

L

Cert does serve our schools and our students and families in the case of emergent situations, but otherwise it's not necessary.

A

So I guess just for clarification is the district, supportive or not supportive of um that's the sros on the campus grounds, not inside but outside. Is that something the district supports or doesn't support.

L

What we support is the the public safety department of the city, supporting our schools for emergent situations and what we were told by the city of evanston's public safety department was that in order for them to best do that, they would like to be available to do patrols on the perimeters of the building in ways that do not interact with children or families, and that they would like to have people assigned to emergency planning with us.

L

If the city of evanston can provide a public safety commitment to our children and families into our schools in a different manner, then we're happy to negotiate that. But that was not what was promised or communicated at the time.

L

And these were all publicly held board meetings and they're recorded. So there is a historical record of the discussions and there should be a historical memory of these discussions within the city of evanston as well.

A

Any other questions comments.

J

um I did have another question: um does anybody know where does a mayor best stand in regards to these um seven open positions um with the police station, because I think that you know one of the campaign um promises he made it was. It was um pertaining to defunding, and so I'm just curious as to where he um stands on that and um if he's in alignment with you know not hiring them or is he now supporting it and what is going to be?

J

um What actions do we have to make sure that you know he's held accountable.

A

E

A

Yeah, I can't I can't I'm not sure where uh mayor bishop is on the issue, um and you know, although he plays uh a an important role in um kind of establishing the agenda and kind of keeping keeping order among the council members, he doesn't have a vote. Unless it's a it's, it's a tie vote. He needs to break it. um So I am interested on his opinion on the matter, but I'm also interested in what my my colleagues, the nine other council members, how they feel on the issue, but we're still discussing it.

A

I know we have some budget meetings coming up and um they're all public meetings and and uh we'll we'll know soon how everybody feels about the issue. I know we discussed it at the last special special city council meeting, I'm sure we'll hear from the police department as to why they believe we need to um to bring back on these staff members. So we'll have a lot of discussion moving forward on the topic, um but yeah, I'm not I'm not sure where mayor this stands on the issue at this point.

A

um Okay, so this is uh thank you so much sir. This is really good information. Everybody has uh access to it again this uh this.

F

Was an abbreviated.

A

Version of a much longer uh uh a much more detailed um look into kind of reorganizing our police department and defunding our police department, in a way that that will help us and hopefully achieve better outcomes, which is what this is all about, and so we appreciate you sarah for coming on, but everybody can access the the action plan uh through the chat.

A

It is uh it's in the chat, it's actually been posted, think twice there and you can access it uh read it we'll have sarah back on at future meetings to talk more about it, and um you know I I guess just to give you an update. I touched a bit on this. You know we did send out an rfp. The city sent out an rfp for an emergency response program.

A

um As far as I understand, there were no responses to the rfp and we just received an update at the human services committee meeting which, which I sit on and councilman reid, sits on and again my position unless, um unless I get information that that would suggest we need to move in a different direction is that we really should be bringing on staff to do to do that.

A

Work as opposed to contracting out for it, and that's one reason why I wanted sarah to present today, but also I want us to continue to think about um how to bring uh on this alternative emergency response program or system into what we do as a city and really commit public dollars towards it. Hire people on staff to do the work as opposed to contracting out for it.

A

So you'll hear me and others I'm sure, bringing that up at future meetings, um and you know one thing: we've also talked about a bit and I'm I'm still figuring out how to frame this discussion and who to bring on to talk about it, but a lot of the organizational theories that especially around policing points.

A

At least me at this stage to the idea that while it may be important to have a police chief or someone who is leading our public safety department, that has a law enforcement background background. I think it is equally important that we have a uh a person in charge. That's committed to that is committed to and understands organizational theory that understands um that is. That is a clinician that understands kind of health outcomes.

A

Overall, that's where I am now just based on some of the research that I've been doing um outside of this committee and I'm trying to find the most appropriate way to bring that discussion to committee with uh experts on these different topics and I'm probably a week or two away from being able to propose a lineup that I think could really speak to this group about the benefits of uh adding another position to our public safety strategy.

A

F

A

Position um that that really could ensure that our police department is rooted in in strong social science, that's rooted in understanding that um how we structure our police department, our public safety department, has a lot to do with the incentives that are created and incentives either make people um do things that um uh that support the public benefit, broadly speaking or they they're they're, I think, are currently incentives that are set up to make people um protect one another and and um become further kind of insulated, as they try to manage this really this this job.

A

That gives you a lot of authority, but also comes with a lot of risks, whether it's perceived or real. It comes with a lot of risks and um I think this job of being a police officer.

A

We we've seen it in action for a while. Now we know what it leads to. We know the type of person um that that it creates, and I think in order to shift aggressively away from that, we need to add a different individual that thinks about policing that thinks about health outcomes that thinks about public safety in a in a different way than I think.

A

What the institution of law enforcement currently produces and that's not to say they wouldn't have a role, but I think the way we have talked about it is some type of co-leadership.

A

um uh uh You know with this new department that we're thinking about so I'm just throwing that out there again still trying to figure out how to effectively and appropriately bring that to the group um happy to hear people's thoughts on that just in case I'm moving in the wrong direction and we want to go in a different direction.

C

um I have a question about.

B

C

In response just like, if we could make maybe an action step for the next meeting or you know like so we're not just like introducing ideas and then they kind of like don't come back up um for a while or like how we can continue to build on yeah. I don't know if that something making sense.

A

B

A

I yeah no, that makes perfect sense. I think one of the steps is um I I thought our our alternative emergency response program was really looking at creating positions within the city of evanston.

A

It's been discussed, but that's not where we're headed right now, and so I think one of the things we need to decide as a committee is, if we want to continue to explore that, because even reading through the evidence to fight for black lives action plan, it really calls for a city division within this public safety department that will respond um to you know mental health related calls and calls related to sexual abuse and other calls, and um right now it doesn't seem like we I mean we have this alternative response committee.

A

That's thinking about this, but I think they're really looking in really focused in a few different directions, as opposed to really looking at what it looks like to to create these staffs uh in in um in our you know, to create these ads within our current uh kind of infrastructure, and so I think that's the question that we need to ask ourselves: is that something that we want to pursue? Or at least look into um and whether that's reassigning people reassigning current police officers, which is what I think this your the efdl model, calls for.

A

If it's something else, but I think that's an important question.

A

Allison, I saw you made a chat. Let me.

G

Yeah just that um the violence prevention working group, the the third you know, one of one of the three working groups in the reimagining public safety overall committee- um I think you know is- is also like there's a lot of overlap between some of what we're talking about what that working group is proposing and the alternative response group um and- and basically you know, the the overlying.

G

The overarching theme is like having people other than police officers. Do a lot of this work and what that looks like might be slightly different in each of the groups. But um you know: there's there's a lot of overlap there, so I just you know, wanted to to um reemphasize kimberly's point, um especially because, with the the violence prevention working group, I think we're getting to a place where um we're about to you know, make some proposals so we'll have to see how that kind of overlaps with everything else.

A

You know and I'm sorry, if you could, where do you think there might be some more overlap, so I missed the you're.

E

G

That what areas yeah this just the idea of of having non-police officers respond to whatever it is right. So the alternative response committee, um I think, had sort of a broader to-do list and then now is, is focusing quite a bit on some of the mental health aspects of it. That's something that we in this working group have talked about. A lot is the mental health aspect of it and the living room. um That's a thread.

G

That's been common between those two working groups and then the violence prevention working group is thinking about victim services and youth services and how those two work together and where they're located within the the city um organization, not within the police department, um so they're all we're all kind of talking about like different ways.

G

Basically, I hate to use the term because it's it's, you know what one of the working groups is called, but like alternatives to the alternative responses.

A

Yeah- and I think that's, I think, alternative responses are the most effective way to address some of the concerns we've heard over the last several years and even beyond, um because it removes the responsibility away from an armed officer, and so that's mental health and sexual abuse. That's that's traffic potentially uh nuisance complaints. Also, I think, is what we heard, and so I think, if we want to make the biggest difference, we really.

L

A

To make a decision as committees and as a council like what? What responsibilities do we want to shift on our on our public servants and and and are we trying to contract out that work or do we want to bring these folks on? Is full-time staff, the city of evanston, and I'm not sure I have, even as a council member clear and a clear idea of where the council is at and where the committees are at.

A

I know the the data committee made a recommendation um to some around how we respond to traffic, but I don't think it was. It went as far as to say we shouldn't have armed public servants. Responding to you know, correct right.

G

A

So and maybe allison you could speak a bit more to that that recommendation that came out of the or that I think it's coming out of the the data committee.

G

Yeah yeah that that one is the only one, that's in a way, an outlier here, because it's not looking for um different types of staff or different. um You know basically non-police officers to respond um to certain events, so that those recommendations um are basically to have law enforcement, not um stop folks for equipment violations anymore um to ban consent, searches and then some uh recommendations and requests around data um and how it's like, correlated and and given back out.

A

Go ahead, did you have uh some comments.

C

um I just think that, with the overlap like, I think that um I think looking at that org chart, you know how we were doing a couple months ago, is kind of what we should go back to and really looking at each role, the dollars that go into each one, making a plan. That's similar to the one that I just presented with, that we create, as a committee um and really figuring out how we can reorganize those roles into the.

C

What we want to see our public safety entity look like, because I think, if we're trying to just build on what we already have without like changing what exists like contracting out, but not getting rid of a set of people who work for epd right now or shifting them around or getting them further educated and like taking those dollars into mitigating the root causes like. I feel like we're kind of looking at the reactions right now to calls rather than like preventing some of these things.

C

And I think if our working group can really focus on every single position and role that exists within the department right now and how that can either be transformed or just slightly changed and then who the specific personnel within that those roles are and like.

C

I just think, that's where we have to start so that we're not having four different conversations in groups that aren't talking to each other, but about the same idea.

A

um I think it's a great point with the understanding that we may be having similar conversations that people in other groups are having, but you know so be it we may have to. I guess my point is: we may have to continue doing our work and and meet somewhere down the road. Unless we want to approach those groups and say hey, you know what what are you doing? Here's what we're doing? What should we look into?

A

What do you want to look into, and we certainly can take that approach, but um um but I bought but also wouldn't mind just trying to do our tasks to the best of our ability and and seeing what we meet down the road, um uh I'm curious to councilman marie kimberly. What are your thoughts on uh what sarah proposed in terms of a direction for the committee.

H

Well, I would love to see I mean I'm, I think, allison as well we're both on the other violence intervention. It sounds like she may also be on the data, um so I do see a lot of overlap, but I think that's. Okay,.

F

H

Think it's good that we're actually thinking of the same ideas, because hopefully, when we're trying to sort of um achieve consensus across all three that you know there will be parallels and we won't really be looking at a lot of very different options. So I think that's really good that we're kind of arriving at some of the same conclusion.

H

I guess what I would like to see is just we've started in the other group and when I say we, I really mean allison and started um kind of framing out what we want to see, and so I wonder for this group.

H

Could we take some of the parts of what we just looked at from the document and added on to maybe some of the other things we've talked about in our committee and start to frame up kind of what this new structure would look like um and then maybe you all can advise us, I'm sorry, my son, um you all, can advise us on how we take it through the vetting process. If you will and think about, you know getting um estimates of what it would cost to do something like this.

H

You know how do we actually go from idea to implementation, but I think the next step for us would be maybe a you know, a joint review at the next large um reimagining public safety meeting, where we kind of talk about all the common themes that each group is coming up with and then secondarily, our group sort of formalized our recommendations. A bit.

A

uh Council memory.

A

And before councilmember before you go kimberly, you're not saying have recommendations for the next reimagining public ship safety committee. Being now you are. I just want to make sure I understand no.

H

No because that's like tomorrow, right right, yeah.

A

H

No, not that one, I'm thinking for like the next sort of uh group of this this um this group, the next meeting of this group.

E

A

Let's see what your name yep- and I think you and sarah on this are in agreement, then that that we can start to put this thing together, based on what we learned, try to put it together and and see where we end up. So I think you're in agreement um and if we need people to you know, subject matter experts and others to come in and provide more information we can. We can. um We can kind of uh schedule them as needed. uh Councilman marie any thoughts on this uh on this direction.

D

No I'm there agreement okay.

A

uh It is 7 p.m. We have, I don't, think we've ever concluded a meeting at the hour march, so I'm gonna try to do that today, um but uh I think we're clear that we want to start to frame out what this new department would look like at our next meeting. What I'll try to do is is pull together.

A

What we've learned into the google drive and I'll share that back out, but we had a google doc at one point that we were working off of um I'll try to move all of this to that document.

A

Just so we have a good starting point and, and then at the next meeting um we can kind of get to work, putting together this new department, and um um if that sounds, if that sounds like a good next step, then um yeah, we'll we'll do that in between the meetings and look forward to a really uh a really interesting, and I think in uh important meeting for our committee does that sound.

E

A

E

A

Look at my calendar we're looking at uh not the 9th but the 16th at 6 p.m.

J

C

A

Is that good for everybody.

A

Okay, uh if there's anything that that you need uh members, uh sarah kim devine and whoever else I'm missing, just let me know- and I can get that from the city- uh thank you to everybody from the community for coming out uh to this meeting. We appreciate it. I think there were some. I just want to make sure I'm getting some other calls.

E

A

uh I think also, I had a question also, how will these priorities be elevated to the chief in city management search? So we, um you know, our committee's recommendation was that we had this question early on uh our our position on the police chief hires, that we should hold off hiring a police chief until we complete this work and um and- and I think the interim city manager and mayor bish are in agreement.

F

A

K

A

With hope, I know they will come to us and let us know- and we can have that discussion then, but uh we are uh certainly holding off until um until we finish this work, that's where we are now uh thanks. I'm gonna hop. Take care, tyler, hey allison! Thank you. ah So that was the the one question so again. Thank you so much to community members who have come out again. This is a re-thinking organizational.

B

A

Committee, a subcommittee of the reimagining public safety committee, we're going to be back on um not next tuesday, but the following tuesday. I think I said that's the 16th at 6 pm. um Hopefully I can see everybody back and uh and um yeah good night unless there's any other questions or comments have a good night.

K

A

Matt real quick before you, you uh close it out. I want to uh somebody left me contact information from the aclu. I want to make sure I get back to them. Okay, I got a good screenshot matt, I'm good. Okay, all right matthew, good.

E

A

E

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