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Organizer urges alternatives to policing funding and warns immigrant community risks
Summary
A community organizer asked the council to avoid increasing policing budgets through a surcharge and suggested cutting school resource officers and investing in housing, food and mediation programs to improve community safety.
At the public-comment portion, Torren McKnight urged the council to consider alternatives to increasing police funding and said the proposed surcharge would raise the residential fee and risk harm to immigrant neighbors.
McKnight said: "The city is discussing raising the public, safety fee from almost or by almost 50% from $5.66 to $10.50 per household and much more for businesses." They argued that resources for housing, food and lowering cost of living would make communities safer than additional policing and described negative experiences with school resource officers.
McKnight and other speakers asked the council to consider cutting the school resource officer position and to explore volunteer, mediation and community-based responses. Council members responded that these policy choices (service level changes vs taxation) were appropriate topics for the August follow-up and that staff should return with options, including a levy that would give voters a choice.
