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Orozco, Norma From: Emily Leard <emuleard@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2020 3:36 PM To: eComment Subject: URGENT: For Tonights City Council Meeting Regarding Police Budget Increase I was recently informed that you wish to increase the police budget on July 7th at a City Council meeting. While raising the police budget may sound like a way to reduce crime, there are better alternatives, and better ways to spend money. It's unknown how Santa Ana will use their new money, but odds are it's to hire more police, get better weapons, and raise salaries. First off, raising police salaries will do nothing. By raising police salaries, you are attracting people who are in it for the money, not because they want to protect and serve, which will attract corrupt people in your department. Second off, we do not need more weapons!! All each officer needs is weapons for self defense and in the case of a shooter. No matter what happens, police should not be killing people. Their job is not to shoot, it's to arrest and stop crime. More weapons would simply equal more casualties and police brutality. Santa Ana is already more violent and kills more people than most police departments in California. Third off, regarding adding more officers. Quote a USA today article: "Most police departments have issues, not with the number of officers, it's with how they are deployed and scheduled, " said Alexander Weiss, a police staffing consultant whose clients have included police departments in Chicago, Albuquerque and New Orleans. "It's more important what the officers do, versus how many of them there are." Furthermore, James McCabe, a retired New York Police Department official who travels the country as a police staffing consultant, says there is little clear connection between staffing numbers and crime. "New York City made the conscious decision to reduce the number of cops," he noted in an interview. `And crime continued to go down. It's not what you have, it's what you are doing with them." If you really want to lower crime, better utilize the people you have. This will come at no extra cost, just better management. Now that you see why increasing the police budget will not help, let's look at what else you can do with all that money. The LA Times says "Study after study shows that even those homeless individuals with severe mental illness or suffering from addiction have lower rates of criminal behavior once they have a roof over their head. Building shelters and housing will deter crime and protect lives." Santa Ana has an 18.03% homeless population, compared to Orange Counties overall 1.32%. A large percentage of crime is committed by homeless people, or is targeted at homeless people. What you need to do is invest in programs to get homeless people off the streets, instead of spending more money on police. This is clearly the best solution. Here are some effective programs that have been proven to work by the U.S. Department of Justice: Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, Second Chance Act, and Domestic Violence Shelters. If I have put any doubt in your mind that we should not raise the police budget, please don't vote to increase it. Regards, Emily Leard (an Orange County Citizen) Links to Evidence: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/02/13/marshall-project-more- cop s-dont-mean-les s-crime-experts-say/281805 6002/ i