DEPARTMENT: Government and Public Affairs
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Jeff Coyle
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT: Police Services Community Engagement Strategy
SUMMARY:
The Government and Public Affairs Department will brief the Public Safety Committee on a community engagement effort to obtain input related to a review of police services response.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On December 11, 2020 the City Manager provided a plan to review and analyze police service response over the next several months to the Mayor and City Council. The goal of this review is to distinguish between calls that require a traditional police response from those calls that may be better handled by another City department or combination of police and other service provider.
Part of this plan will focus on understanding the community expectations of police services and develop response alternative recommendations to ensure police officers are placed in encounters that need a law enforcement response. This effort will give the community an opportunity to provide input on what encounters they want to have with police and work with partners to develop response additions or alternatives.
Recommendations may require further investment in areas other than the police department. For this reason, it’s critical that we continue to adhere to our existing financial policy to keep public safety expenses below 66% of the general fund.
The Department of Government and Public Affairs will present a community engagement plan to the Public Safety Committee on January 29. The goal of this plan is to obtain community that will be used to develop recommendations to the Public Safety Committee.
Community Input will be gathered through a series of outreach efforts:
• Scientific Community Survey (February 2021)
• Meetings with Neighborhood Association Presidents in all City Council Districts (March 2021)
• City-wide Community Conversations (March 2021)
• Pláticas con nuestra comunidad (March 2021)
• Tele-Town Hall (March 2021)
• Meetings with Stakeholder Groups (March/April 2021)
Due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, outreach efforts will be conducted virtually. The outreach campaign will create all materials in English and Spanish.
The City is also looking for feedback to improve the San Antonio Police Department website in order to continue to enhance transparency of data. The Community Engagement Plan will also lay out a strategy to obtain community input that will help improve SAPD website.
The results of the community engagement process will be presented to the Public Safety Committee in April 2021.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends moving forward with the implementation of the Community Engagement Plan.