text: Two-Step Community Safety Program
  Security is more than just enforcement. People feel safe when they have a roof over their heads, healthcare to take care of their needs and schooling that gives them opportunities to earn a living. Cops do their jobs safely when they have a trusting relationship with the community, when they can see everyone not as potential arrest statistics, but potential allies in their work.
  We don't have this in CD 14. Statistics across a number of crime categories are up. More importantly, people and small businesses say they don't feel safe.
  I propose a two-step solution that looks to address both the immediate challenge and the more long term reasons, so that everyone who works and lives in the District feel safe. Specifically, lets:
  Provide Respectful Community Policing: Too often cops are seen as outsiders, an occupying force that stay in their cars and just come out to arrest people and keep the peace. We need them out of the cars and not just walking the streets, but being part of the community. They should be trained – and in some cases, re-trained – to work with community residents to not just keep assaults and robberies down, but allow people to feel safe.
  Guarantee Full Mental Health Services for residents and law enforcement: True security can't just be provided by force. Traumatized people continue the cycle of pain and violence on others. Everyone who lives and works in our neighborhoods – from older residents to our youth and including our cops – should be provided with the tools to they need to deal with their problems before it spirals out of control or into a violence.
  Long-term, we must invest in security that connects people to each other and resources. Residents, especially young people, who feel safe around law enforcement won't see them as an occupying force, but as peacekeepers who could even serve as elders or sounding boards to their ideas. When small business owners feel safe, not only will residents see more services, but more money gets circulated in our communities, sparking even more economic development.