FINAL CORRESPONDENCE Item 14 - Grant - Fiscal Year 2021 Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program (PDF-355 KB) [Updated 03/08/2022 @ 5:24 p.m.]

CITY COUNCIL
Darrell Steinberg, Mayor
Angelique Ashby, Mayor Pro Tem, District 1
Sean Loloee, District 2
Jeff Harris, District 3
Katie Valenzuela, District 4
Jay Schenirer, Vice Mayor, District 5
Eric Guerra, District 6
Rick Jennings, II, District 7
Mai Vang, District 8

CHARTER OFFICERS
Mindy Cuppy, City Clerk
Susana Alcala Wood, City Attorney
Jorge Oseguera, City Auditor
Howard Chan, City Manager
John Colville, City Treasurer

City Council
Financing Authority
Housing Authority
Public Financing Authority
Redevelopment Agency
Successor Agency
City Hall-Council Chamber
915 I Street, 1st Floor
Published by the Office of the City Clerk
(916) 808-5163

CORRESPONDENCE

Description of Attached: Correspondence received after publishing the Agenda.

For the Meeting of: Tuesday, January 4, 2022, at 5:00 p.m.

Agenda Item: Consent Item 14

14. Grant: Fiscal Year 2021 Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program
File ID: 2021-01477
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution: 1) authorizing the City Manager, or the City Manager’s designee, to accept a grant award of $1.875 million from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for the Fiscal Year 2021 Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program grant; and 2) directing the City Manager, or the City Manager’s designee, to return to City Council to seek authority to establish the grant project and budget, and adjust staffing levels, upon filling all sworn General Fund positions, adjusted for normal attrition rates.

Contact: Kathy Lester, Police Chief, (916) 808-0826, [email protected] ,
Police Department; Natalie Weaver, Administrative Officer, (916) 808-0864, [email protected], Police Department

From: Nick Delaney
To: Public Comment
Subject: Council Meeting 1/4/22
Date: Monday, January 3, 2022 5:58:55 PM
Comment for Council meeting on 1/4/2022 Agenda Item 14.

As a resident of District 7 I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed grants to increase the Sacramento police budget and hire 15 additional officers.

Nicholas Delaney
From: Courtney Poole
To: Public Comment
Cc: Mayor Steinberg; Angelique Ashby; Sean Loloee; Jeff S. Harris; Jay Schenirer; Eric Guerra; Rick Jennings; District8; Howard Chan
Subject: Public Comment on Agenda Item #14 for the City Council Meeting- 1/4/22 @ 5PM Date: Monday, January 3, 2022 8:37:42 PM
Good evening,
I am writing to submit public comment for agenda item #14 for the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, 1/4 at 5 pm.

I urge you oppose accepting the $1.875 million grant for the Community Oriented Policing Services HIring Program. You have heard loud and clear over and over again that community safety does not increase with an increase of officers. 15 more police officers funded by this grant also means a significant amount of money is required to be contributed by the city to support this expansion. You have heard and heard that the community wants Care not Cops.

This decision means the city would be divesting funding that could potentially be invested in community programs that are trusted and effective in preventing crime keeping Sacramento safe. Investing in a racist, harmful institution is not a smart use of our city dollars. As Sac PD's budget continues to increase each year to our current budget of 168 million, our city is no safer.

As a social worker and elementary school mental health professional, I see first-hand the effectiveness of early intervention, care, and community support versus police response. Let's fund trusted community based orgs that are already doing the work in crime prevention instead of accepting this grant that has city fund matching and retention requirements.

VOTE NO ON AGENDA ITEM #14 AND LET'S ALL DO BETTER TO CARE FOR OUR RESIDENTS.

Thank you,
Courtney Poole
she, her, hers
(818) 620-5125
From: Corrine Sako
To: Public Comment
Subject: 1-4-22 city council meeting, item 14 public comment Date: Sunday, January 2, 2022 8:12:44 PM
Dear Mayor and City Councilmembers,
As a licensed psychologist in independent practice and a community mental health advocate, that is also a resident of District 7, I implore you to oppose adopting this item. Although a grant for almost $2million from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services may sound good on the surface, the fact is that accepting this grant allows for the addition of 15 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) police officer positions over a three-year grant period and requires the City to retain and fund these positions for a minimum of one additional year "to increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts" in the area of "violent crime/gun violence." Sac PD is already ineffective at targeting this area, and adding more officers to an already ineffective solution will at best yield the same ineffective results and at worst continue to cost the City millions of dollars in police misconduct lawsuits.

The Sacramento Police is a mostly white department that has a long-standing history of racial bias and discrimination. Back in 2000, the Racial Profiling Commission indicated that Sac City Police Officers were twice as likely to pull over Black motorists as other motorists. Two decades later, the Center for Policing Equity released a report indicating that in 2014 to 2019, the Police Department was 4.5 times more likely to commit acts of force against Black people and Black residents made up nearly forty percent of the Police Department’s traffic stops, despite comprising only thirteen percent of the City’s population. Then-Chief Hahn admitted he was not surprised by these “disparities." In 2020, a Sacramento City Grand Jury report attributed “allegations of racial animus” to a dramatic decline in the public perception of the Police Department, and identified the allegation as a critical factor in the Police Department’s inability to recruit new staff. The Police Department’s pattern, practice, and/or unofficial custom of discriminatory and violent policing is further evident in the multiple lawsuits recently brought against the Police Department. A new police chief is not going to alleviate this statistic.

Gifting almost $2million to such a biased and brutal police department not only doesn't make sense, it is emboldening them to continue their harmful and racist practices. W e already have
trusted leaders in the community doing the work of targeting gun violence. These leaders have the trust of their community members. What they lack is consistent, prioritized funding from The City.

Instead of giving even more money to the Sacramento Police Department, we need to provide permanent direct funding to community-based organizations that serve communities victimized by gun violence, such as Voices of the Youth, Brother 2 Brother, Black Child Legacy Campaign, etc.

Thank you for your consideration,
Dr. Corrine McIntosh Sako, PsyD, LMFT
Sent from my iPhone
From: Cat Hellxia
To: Public Comment
Subject: City council meeting - jan 4 - item 14
Date: Monday, January 3, 2022 8:08:43 PM
City council meeting - jan 4, 2022 - item 14
I live in Hollywood Park and I demand that sac pd is rejected from getting a grant to hire more officers. I would rather the money go towards community programming, mental health services, or local stimulus checks.

Thank you,
Catherine Xia
2120 Stacia Way, Sacramento, CA 95822
[email protected]

408 646 7641

CHARTER OFFICERS
Mindy Cuppy, City Clerk
Susana Alcala Wood, City Attorney
Jorge Oseguera, City Auditor
Howard Chan, City Manager
John Colville, City Treasurer

FINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Description of Attached: Correspondence received after publishing the Agenda.

For the Meeting of: Tuesday, January 4, 2022, at 5:00 p.m.

Agenda Item: Consent Item 14

Contact: Kathy Lester, Police Chief, (916) 808-0826, [email protected] ,
Police Department; Natalie Weaver, Administrative Officer, (916) 808-0864, [email protected], Police Department

From: Kristin Dobbin
To: Public Comment
Subject: Public Comment for City Council Meeting January 4th @ 5PM, Item 14 Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 1:28:58 PM
Public Comment for City Council Meeting January 4th @ 5PM, Item 14 I would like to make three points about the proposal to accept a federal grant to fund 15 more police officer positions in the city: 1) Sacramento knows from experience that more cops does not make our community safer. We have steadily increased the size of our police force and budget with no positive effects on community safety. More law enforcement does not make us safer, they do not prevent crimes, rather police simply show up after the fact to document those crimes (and then in the case of Sacramento fail to successfully investigate). We the people have been asking for you to divest from law enforcement and carceral systems and instead invest in community safety and services for years and it is time for you to listen. Only then will we see the improvements we all seek. 2) This grant is not even a good deal! The terms and conditions of this grant require the city to cover 82% of the total costs for these positions for the next four years (~$8.3 million) and set the city up to pay 100% of the costs for these additional positions thereafter. Notably, none of this includes the costs of equipping these new officers with vehicles etc. so we have to expect to pay even more than that. Make no mistake, Sacramento taxpayers will be footing the bill for this investment, not the federal government. 3) Please stop allowing the police department and city officials to peddle mistruths about increasing crime rates in our city. For some types of crimes like murder and assault, crime rates are still at an all time low and property crime is also declining
Sincerely,
Kristin Dobbin
Sacramento City Resident
From: Courtney Hanson
To: Public Comment
Subject: OPPOSE - Item #14 - Increase in Police Hires & Budget Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 10:46:41 AM
Hello,
I am writing to urge the Sacramento City Council to REJECT the federal COPS grant money being considered on Item #14. This money comes with unsustainable strings attached - to the tune of over $8 million local taxpayer dollars over the next four years - and is a slap in the face to so many in our city who have been victimized by police and systemic racism that is deeply embedded in the Department and the institution more broadly.

Sacramento Police Department's operating budget has only increased over the past four years, reaching a current all-time high of $165.8 million - at the expense of many other vital programs and services the people of Sacramento need. Is it working? Are we safer? No.

Our city desperately needs our local electeds to make decisions with a racial and health equity lens, and to listen to poor and working class, unhoused, Black and Brown people, disabled people, and racial justice activists - who have all been disproportionately violated and harmed by Sacramento PD. "Community policing" is a failed PR tactic and will not get to the root of our problems, including gun violence. Police practices are contributing to local gun violence. We have no shortage of examples of deadly and unnecessary police shootings, and police rarely prevent incidents of violence from taking place.

On the other hand, with just $375,000 a year from the city and seven staff members, Advance Peace - along with other community programs such as Brother to Brother, Voices of the Youth, the Black Child Legacy Campaign and Healing the Hood - prevented juvenile homicides for nearly two years.

The Sacramento Police Department has a budget 150x that of Advance Peace and has never achieved anything near this feat of prevention. It is deeply disturbing that the Council would even consider spending our precious public dollars on more of the same when the City of Sacramento and Sacramento PD are currently being sued - once again - for state violence and repression of community members, with a press conference taking place as we speak.

Please show your community that you have been listening to the righteous calls for long overdue racial justice, healing, and community-based solutions. Please do the right thing and vote to reject this unnecessary funding and burden.
- Courtney Hanson
(916) 316-0625
Decarcerate Sacramento
From: Ella Rohde
To: Public Comment
Subject: January 4, 2022 meeting
Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 11:26:56 AM
I am writing as a Sacramento resident to express that the Sacramento police department should not receive a budget increase of any kind. A 1.86 million dollar grant to hire more officers would not make our communities safer, but instead would cause more harm to already marginalized communities. Police do not prevent crime, they respond to it after the fact. The police budget is already massive, and they haven’t shown a decrease in crime with the already inflated budget. The circumstances that cause the majority of crime are based in poverty. Reinvesting into our community members facing poverty will decrease crime, not giving more money to police. Most likely, we will allow our police to cause more harm and violence to our community if we enable them with more money. Formally, I request the board decline to give the police department further room to murder and otherwise harm the most vulnerable members of my community.

Thank you,
Ella Rohde
From: Savannah Wright
To: Public Comment
Subject: Jan 4th meeting, agenda item 14
Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 4:37:56 PM
A $1.86 million grant for Sac PD to hire 15 more officers is STRONGLY OPPOSED, especially considering they already do nothing to prevent crime and are so poorly trained that they are usually the ones causing violence! If the City of Sacramento is truly working towards reimagining safety, then this is NOT the direction to go. OPPOSE THE GRANT!!
-Savannah Wright
Constituent of Sacramento County

Sacramento City CouncilJanuary 4, 2022

Sacramento City Council
January 4, 2022