In a unanimous vote, Sacramento City Council votes ‘Yes’ on landmark public safety resolution

In a move that advocates described as being a necessary reckoning for Sacramento, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday night that acknowledged “generations of genocide, structural racism, and oppression” and broadened the definition of what public safety means.

Prior to Tuesday, City Code had not explicitly defined “public safety.” Officials usually use a de facto definition related to police, fire, and emergency medical services. This generalization has led the city to approach public safety as an urgent response to a crisis — a crime, a fire, a shooting — versus preventative services to improve neighborhood safety and quality of life, advocates said

By broadening the definition of public safety in Sacramento, advocates say existing dollars for public safety can be more flexibly spent on community-centered and youth-oriented programming that address the policies, systems, and environmental risk factors that perpetuate violence against young people.

The resolution, brought forward by Councilman Jay Schenirer, was drafted in collaboration with more than 20 community groups including Youth Forward, Sac Kids First Coalition, and Public Health Advocates. Community leaders and city officials say the resolution, which focuses particularly on the safety and well-being of young people, represents a cultural shift in policy that could have rippling effects and will potentially address entrenched inequities in underserved - mostly Black and Latino - neighborhoods.

“This is a statement of principle that will be a guiding document, not just for this City Council, but for future city councils and future city leaders for many, many years to come,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during the meeting Tuesday. “if we can back this up with the resources and the policy commitment, this will be a landmark document.”

A change in policing, long overdue

“Currently the city defines public safety as police, fire, and medical response,” said DeAngelo Mack, Public Health Advocates’ Director of State Policy. “We’re (actually) bolstering that definition by including youth-prevention services, lifting (up) the voices of a community and young people, and their participation in changing public safety’s frame as a whole.”

The reevaluation of what public safety should look like in Sacramento comes after a summer of protests against the killing of Black people by police officers such as Stephon Clark, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor.

Those protests ushered calls by some to “defund the police,” an amorphous term that ranges from reallocating law enforcement budgets to disbanding police departments altogether.

“It will be laying the groundwork for everything that people have been asking for this past year around changing the way we think about public safety,” said Youth Forward Community Organizer and Sac Kids First coordinator, Monica Ruelas Mares.

It is geared towards making a safer place for kids and creating an atmosphere in which they feel protected, valued, respected, and loved.

A West Campus High School senior, Dung Hoang, who is a member of Youth Forward, has been working on public policy advocacy relating to the Public Health resolution and promoting youth services to initiate the change in Sacramento’s inept communities.

“We would prefer to have a community member or mental health professional who can come and assist us in those situations instead of having police and fire services. It feels a lot safer when you have people like you who are there to help you in situations they have gone through themselves,” said Hoang.

The overall intent is to make Sacramento a healthier place to live with safer environments for its community. Now that the affirmative vote is in, advocates will take next steps to create an alternative to non-emergency responses, recommend budget allocation for community outreach and other programs, and suggest the budget for the major three services: medical, fire, and police.

“The next step for the city will be to figure out where we should spend our money, how we should shift our focus, what things need to be bolstered, which of our current practices need to be changed.” said Dr. Flojaune Cofer, Senior Director of Policy with Public Health Advocates and Chairwoman of the Measure U Citizens Advisory Committee.

Earlier this summer, Sacramento City Council approved a slate of police reforms that included a plan to redirect some noncriminal 911 calls — such as on mental health or regarding homeless individuals — away from the police department and on to non-police professionals via a new Office of Community Response.

Though council members have not taken up calls to reduce the city’s police department budget as other cities have, Mayor Darrell Steinberg has previously said the new 911 system would ultimately result in at least $10 million being diverted from the police department.

The resolution for public safety started as just a statement, now that it’s passed, the city of Sacramento can transition their focus into an action.

This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.