Citizens League Submits Community-Oriented Public Safety Recommendations

The 48-member Community-First Public Safety Commission submitted its recommendations via the Citizens League Mayor Melvin Carter and the St. Paul City Council on May 21. The commission’s charge was to re-envision emergency response by making recommendations to the Mayor and City Council regarding: 
• Alternative first response options to priority 4 and priority 5 calls for service
• Approaches for ongoing community involvement in the City’s community-first public safety framework
• Consideration of the creation of a city staffed office to drive and integrate community-first public safety initiatives and strategies, i.e. office of violence prevention.
From this large and very diverse group of commission members, high-level recommendations emerged with extremely strong support. The areas of impact that the commission focused on include the following:  
  • More appropriate responders for each situation who can best assist those in need
  • More efficient deployment of law enforcement
   • Decriminalize behavior & response, particularly for people and communities of color
   • Focus on prevention and community safety
   • Improve systems & increase accessibility
The final report is available at https://citizensleague.org/saint-paul-public-safety