Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive and file a presentation on Strategies for Addressing Violent Crime.
So we back in one minute with the study session on which will be by our city staff and violent crime and how we're addressing that. Thank you. Okay. We are going to go ahead and get the council meeting back into session. We'll do a quick roll call vote. Sorry, it's a roll call, please. Councilwoman Zendejas. You're Councilwoman. Allen here. Councilwoman Pryce. Here, Councilman Superman. Councilwoman Mongo. Supervisor thank you to Councilwoman Taro. President. Council member Durango. Presented. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Here are Garcia. I'm here. Thank you very much. We are going to go ahead and restart the rest of the agenda here. So let me go ahead and take it back to the clerk who's going to read the study session item we have on the agenda tonight. Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive and file a presentation on strategies for addressing violent crime. Great. Thank you. And with that, I'll turn this over to Mr. Modica. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council. So we do have a couple of things to discuss with you tonight. This council has been very active over the past eight, nine months, really focusing on violence prevention. Before we get into the presentations, I kind of want to reiterate, you know, why we're here tonight. It started back in July. There was a request from this council to really look at a violence interruption strategy. Had a number of ideas and things that we could find if we get some future dollars and asked for some information back, which we kind of took as our base. We then got the CARES Act and we funded a number of those items that we were able to kind of squeeze into the Cares Act money. Then we got a request back in February to really put together a strategy as we started to see some gun violence happening in our communities, which is happening throughout the nation. And we'll talk some about that today. We reported back with a with a written document on all the things that PD was doing and then wanted to make sure we present that tonight. And then we also got a request in February to look at how do we fund additional violence prevention work kind of going forward. And then a lot of that got wrapped into the Recovery Act. So there's a lot that this council has asked for on violence prevention. Tonight, we're going to try to pull it all together and show you what's been happening and what we've already done, what we're working on now and what's coming in the future. So we'll have a presentation from our police chief about the kind of immediate intervention steps that we've been taking and the results there in the past couple of months. Also, kind of give you a reminder of where we are historically in crime and where we are right now as well with some of that with some of the uptick in shootings that the nation's experiencing. And then we'll go into a discussion with the health department on some of the upstream prevention, the downstream prevention, the things that we were working on longer term to really impact the cycle of violence in communities. So I will turn it and then we'll take questions at the end. I will turn it over to our police chief, Robert Luna. Thank you, Mr. Modica. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. I will be focusing on these three topics tonight. Violent crime trends in our community. Our response to those trends with an emphasis on gun violence and the importance of partnerships with other city departments and our community. As a reminder, we strive to align our department's vision, mission and core values with dealing with the law enforcement code of ethics. We seek to transform community relationships so that both our community and our police officers feel supported when addressing crime. We have accomplished so much over the years as it relates to violent crime. As you will see here in the slide, that's up. We have less violent crime now than we have had in decades. But I want to make it clear we have a lot of work to do. The increase in shootings is extremely concerning, and I will be discussing some of the ways in which we are addressing this challenge. In 2020. Most major cities throughout the country experience increases in murder and gun violence. Although in 2020, the murder rate in Long Beach increased by 5.9%, the overall crime rate decreased by 1.4% compared to 2019 . Currently, total citywide violent crime is up nearly 15% through March 31st of 2021, and that's driven by shootings. However, murder is down year to date, 22%. And I want to say and I want to make this clear, whether it's one murder five or whatever. This is unacceptable. And I really do want to remind everyone that every victim absolutely matters. These are family members and friends and neighbors that are significantly traumatized. Every time somebody is killed. Chief, can you go back to that slide just 1/2? And I was just having this conversation with the group of a group of folks. And I just want to re-emphasize something. I know it's it's not on the slide, per se, but something you said that that's not reflected there. The group of folks I was chatting with were mentioning to me that that murders have dramatically increased this year and more people are falling victim to homicide, which obviously is the most serious of crime. I will use what you've shared with us is that year to date, the most serious of crime, which of course, is homicide, is actually down year to date this year to last year, is that correct? That's correct. The Long Beach, the city of Long Beach's murder rate is down 22% in 2021 year to date. And if I'm assuming that the people who are approaching you, people get their information in so many different ways and there's a lot of media attention and there should be on other cities around us and really other cities in the country that are experiencing a very high rate of murder this year. But fortunately, Long Beach is not in that category. And then and then on this slide, just before we continue going again, I think we oftentimes read or I think rightly so in the media, you know, what's going on with with crime and violent crime. And I think you address the shooting piece, which is so important. But the the overall trend as far as Long Beach, I know that historically today, the violent crime rate in Long Beach is still lower than it was 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago. Is that right? That is correct. The previous slide, if we can go back to the previous slide, if you look at this slide here, it's it goes back to 1970. And you see that in 1991, Long Beach cataloged 9567 violent crimes. Again, that was in 1991. In 2020, if you compare it to 1991, there's a 75% decrease down to 2340 violent crimes. Again, that was last year in 2020. So although we had an overall decrease, if you're comparing it back to 91, there has been a significant decrease. Thank you. And I just wanted to point that out. I know that you have a lengthy presentation, but I think obviously we read so much about what happens day to day, which again is really important, but it's oftentimes in what we read, what's not obviously included in that is, of course, is about how that what's going on today actually relates to what happened, you know, ten or 30 or 40 years ago. And certainly the issue around homicide, every time you read someone that loses their life and everyone has a story, I obviously I think we are somewhat heartened that the numbers haven't spiked from this year to last year, and we're not seeing the increases that that other cities have. And of course, the year, of course, there's still a lot a long way for the year to go and that certainly can change. But it is heartening to know where that is at this moment. So sorry to stop you there, Chief. I just thought you kind of went through that pretty quick, and I wanted to clarify some of that for some of the folks I've been talking to as well. So thank you. You're welcome. So moving ahead from this led. There we go. Just catching up here. You see a map here on your screen. And here you will see citywide shootings that include hit and no hit shootings and firearm arrests through April 15th. Our police officers have made 177 firearm related arrest year to date. 60% have been prohibitive possessors and 18% have been previously arrested with firearms. If we were to overlay this map with the poverty and unemployment rates and the level of education in these areas, we believe that you would find a direct correlation between violent crimes and these socio economic factors. 2020 was a bad year for many reasons. We've talked about this for several meetings. We believe that the possible possible causes for these crime increases are related to a series to the serious impacts on the criminal justice system in our community resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. In May of 2020, our city hit the highest level of unemployment at 20.8%. The California Department of Corrections and the Los Angeles County Jail have released over 111,000 inmates. Due to the risk of COVID exposure. Repeat offender arrest. Meaning somebody who was arrested three or more times are up 27%. From 2019. Trials and other court proceedings have experienced significant delays. School closures, the lack of programing have negatively impacted youth engagement. And and something pretty stunning. And it's at the bottom of of this specific slide. In 2020, recorded gun sales were up 64% nationwide when compared to 2019. Which means there are many more guns on our street. And if you see at the bottom of that slide, specifically in California, there were 110,000 firearms purchased in our state. Firearm related arrests are up 58% in 2021 compared to the same timeframe in 2020. Similarly, prohibited firearm possessor arrests are up 55%, and our officers have recovered 50% more firearms. 40 of those firearms were ghost guns. An important fact that this light does not capture is that the total number of arrests made by our officers in 2021 is down 20% compared to the same time last year. Now, let me repeat that our arrest in 2020 were down over 20%. The fact that our total arrests are down 20% and our firearm related arrests are up 58%, indicate that our officers are more focused on violent crime than lower level offenses. Related to that fact is that we are seeing a shift in recidivists data. In the past, most of our recidivists arrests were for relatively minor nonviolent offenses. Today, we are seeing an increase in recidivist arrest for violent offenses. We would welcome the I-Team to examine current data, as they have done in the past, to identify more opportunities for prevention and intervention. This slide here indicates one example of many subjects that our police officers encounter on the street. Here you will see an arrest timeline for a prohibitive possessor who has repeatedly been arrested over the past five years. All but one arrest was for illegally possessing a firearm. I would also like to point out the discrepancy between the person's sentence and actual time spent incarcerated. It appears that this person hasn't been held to the full term of any sentence. This is just one example of an individual who has been repeatedly arrested for illegally possessing a firearm. Year to date, our officers have arrested 32 repeat firearm offenders. Now we're going to get to our strategies. Our department is committed to reducing violent crime by implementing a data driven plan. Our plan provides short term strategies to address immediate crime concerns, as well as long term strategies to ensure sustainable reductions. Our plan focuses on key individuals and neighborhoods that are negatively impacted by violent crime. To ensure continuous progress. Our plan also includes key performance metrics and accountability measures to gauge our progress, which I will share with you in a moment. As part of this plan, we have several strategies we are currently using to deter violent crime. You see them here? I would like to highlight two pilot programs that have been effective in reducing crime, in particular gun crimes. Our Coordinated Response team and our Neighborhood Walks program. Our community. Ah. I'm sorry. Our coordinated response team. In February of this year, we reassigned employees away from their primary assignments to create a temporary, coordinated response team comprised of detectives, patrol officers, a divisional crime analyst and a public information officer. This team meets daily to discuss strategies for impacting violent crime with the focus on gun violence, prohibitive possessors, ghost guns and and attempting to identify the contributing factors to violent crime. In addition, they work closely with our federal law enforcement partners, including the FBI, the ATF and the U.S. Marshal's office. The Coordinated Response Team is also responsible for conducting community engagement and neighborhood awareness related to our public safety efforts. Engaging our community is a critical part of this program, and I do want to emphasize that in the past, when we're having challenges with violent crime, specifically shootings, we introduce a lot of uniformed presence that usually slows down or stops the shooting activity. What we're doing differently this time is we're very focused on individuals and places, and ahead of time we're communicating with those neighborhoods so that people know what we're doing there and more importantly, why we're there. And I think that is helpful. Since it sits. Since its inception, this team has made several arrest of violent offenders prohibited from possessing firearms and has confiscated 38 firearms. Here you will see the result of their efforts. Of the total arrest, 22 were prohibitive possessors. Also, please note that of all these firearm arrest, only one of them required any use of any type of force. And I also want to point out that zero, because I think there's a perception that when our officers encounter people with weapons, that there's automatically an officer involved shooting. That is absolutely not true. And you see just in this slide, just with this team. 38 arrests. 22 with firearms. Zero officer involved. Shootings at only one use of force. And yes, one is too many. From what I understand from the body worn camera footage, this individual had a gun in his waistband, was trying to pull it out. And instead of anybody firing upon him, you had several officers who grabbed on to him and were able to disarm him. This slide shows you the shooting before the coordinated response team was assembled and after, which equates to a 36% decrease in citywide shooting incidents. Our police officers are absolutely making a difference. When you put more on the street, it will prevent shootings from occurring. I'm really excited to also talk about another pilot program that we've been running. A very innovative approach that we are taking to reduce violence in our community. Is the Neighborhood Walk's Pilot Program. We are currently focusing resources in the Washington Middle School neighborhood in response to shootings in that area. Historically, this has been one of the most violent reporting districts in our city. The Neighborhood Walks pilot program, which we hope to deploy in other parts of the city in the future, is supported through you, the council's approved Neighborhood Safe Streets funding. It allows officers assigned to specific geographical beats to walk and to interact with community members, giving them a chance to really get to know the people who are living and working in the area while additional officers answer calls for service. Officers have spent 186 hours walking in the neighborhood and have made over 300 recorded community contacts since beginning the program on February 27th of this year. I'm happy to report that since the program's implementation, there has been a 40% decrease in reported shooting incidents in that area. This program has proven to be a true prevention and intervention tool. The next slide, I'll leave up there for just a second, or at least a minute, I should say. Here you will see some testimonials from members of our community about this program. As you can see, our community is grateful for our efforts. Engaging our community in a non-enforcement environment has proven to be very, very positive. And as I said earlier, it's really something special when you're able to get police officers out of the cars and in on foot, actually engaging with neighborhood residents. And it really shows that having officers out there in that manner really is making a huge difference, specifically in crime in that neighborhood. Our department is working with our community and other city partners to provide a safe city for all people and reduce violence in our neighborhoods through crime trend analysis, proactive community policing and community engagement. Our city team is committed to preventing violence before it starts. To be successful, we must have a three pronged approach of prevention intervention. And enforcement. We strive to build positive partnerships within our community. This is embodied in our department's mission of public safety through partnerships. In seeking to address crime alongside our city family. We continue to work with numerous community organizations like the Guidance Center, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, the Long Beach Interfaith Council, our police policy community advisory group, and numerous neighborhood and business groups throughout Long Beach. And to summarize, our department is modifying management practices while analyzing available data in a manner that helps identify the root causes of crime in our impacted neighborhoods. With the focus on providing fair, just and equitable public safety in Long Beach, we are confident that the partnerships we are strengthening and the changes we have made and are continuing to make will help us achieve our vision of a safe city for all people. And with that, I'll turn it over to my partner, the health director, Kelly Colby. Thank you, Chief. Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Thank you for this opportunity to share the public health approach to violence prevention in the city of Long Beach. I'd like to acknowledge Anna Lopez, our community impact officer who is leading the health efforts. I'll discuss today. I'd also like to acknowledge Deputy Chief Deputy City Manager Theresa Chandler for ongoing support of these efforts, as well as the partnership of the Police Department, Parks, Recreation and Marine Workforce Development Libraries, and the many community based organizations and community members as we move forward in our work together to ensure a safer future for the city of Long Beach. And preventions have been underway for over 30 years in our city. The slide shows some of the many efforts. You'll notice that almost all focus on grant funding. The city has done some great work in violence and gang prevention. Yet each effort is an unfunded mandate or grant funded, and when the funding ends, the program ended. It's so very difficult to build a movement for safety who starts and stops based on funding. The most recent plan that we've been working off of the current work underway stems from the safe Long Beach violence prevention plan approved by City Council in 2014. With various grant funding, this plan hosted trainings and trauma informed approaches. Bullying, prevention and implicit bias training for the police department. It's supported six community policing sessions and funded the all in campaign to address chronic truancy. In 2017, the safe Long Beach Plan was moved to the Health Department, where it's been focused on a place based effort and community building to support safety in their communities. It was recently awarded $1.1 million to address gun violence. We in public health talk a lot about upstream prevention. And this this graphic captures the approach. We often spend our time and resources working to intervene when people are already struggling in the downstream. It's the life vest, right? The safety vest. This is costly. It doesn't address the underlying reasons they exist. So it keeps on happening and it keeps on growing. Very difficult to change. The bridge that is toward the top represents upstream prevention. This bridge keeps people from falling into difficult situations. They're in some cases of the city. These bridges are weak and broken. So it doesn't surprise you that people are falling through into the river. Those that live near or travel across the strong bridges are protected, while those who live and cross their bridges often fall in. Of course, all bridges need reinforcement, but it's easy to see which need the most urgent attention. And our role in public health and as the city, is to address disparities, inequities by identifying and repairing the bridges that have lacked resources and maintenance, promote safe passage across for all the social and physical environments where we live, work, learn , play and age are our bridges to opportunity. Our goal by going upstream is to build the strong bridges needed for success across the city. This graphic, while busy, highlights the key focus areas that we talk about. When we talk about upstream, we focus on building the individual and community strengths needed to support success. These include healthy birth outcomes, strong families, safe housing, financial stability, education and health and communities. We focus on building community power toward collective vision for the community. As we move toward adulthood, we focus on building social capital for youth, workforce development, health and safe places to be together. And then often we move past prevention to intervention, where we focus on efforts to halt what's going on, the pulling of people out of the water at they start to fall. These include things like violence, interruption, opportunity, youth programing, use diversion and some of the police interventions. When we look at this next chart, you the actual programs that we operate in health department and across other departments. So currently programs such as Black Infant Health, the Women, Infants and Children's Program, the Nurse, Family Partnership, Family Planning, All Children Thrive, early childhood Strengthening Families Fatherhood, our housing authority, healthy, active, Long Beach and medical outreach. Those are all considered upstream preventions because we're working to build strong individuals and families. We also look at the the work, the Long Beach Collaborative, which is a focus that you'll be hearing about tonight around really building community strength. We include the Office of Youth Development in both upstream and downstream, because really, youth development is a life lifelong experience. My Brother's Keeper is included in here, as well as Neighborhood Services that operates and development services. And then our downstream again is the Office of Youth Development. You see internships, mentorships raised to be healthy places to gather. Our trauma and resiliency work and also the Long Beach Police Department Walks program, Community Walks program is a downstream prevention. When we look at our intervention, we look at our new our gun violence prevention program, our reentry services, My Sister's Keeper and the Neighborhood Safe Streets initiatives . Across all of that, our mental health supports and substance use treatment that are so important, as well as investments and policies to support the work that we are doing. Like many urban cities across the nation, the city of Long Beach experienced the impact of social policies on incarceration and violent crime rates for a black community and communities of color. Between the mid 1980s and 1990s, this problem became particularly acute as we face the implications of the policies such as war, drugs, the institutionalization of mental health services, changes in prison, prison sentencing guidelines, economic stagnation and social pressures of poverty and systemic racism that adversely affected black people and communities of color. It must be considered as part of an upstream approach to our policy and resourcing design. So I start discussing the different programs that we're currently operating in the Health Department. The first upstream prevention is our Long Beach Collaborative. How are the Long Beach Collaborative? Renamed it As of today along Beach Advancing Peace. And so we are moving from the name of safe Long Beach to Long Beach advancing, advancing peace. This effort focused on increasing social connectedness, improving economic opportunities, fostering safe and healthy neighborhoods, and creating trauma informed systems. Is currently focused in the Washington neighborhood and focuses heavily on strengthening community, voice and power to make change locally. To build a safer community. Both up and downstream prevention as a youth development. The Office of Youth Development and the Youth Develops Strategic Plan. The Youth Strategic Plan was launched in February of this year. The plan lays out key goals for the Office of Youth Development and Youth in our city. Youth development, as I mentioned before, goes across the lifespan. Many of the efforts begin in middle school through age 24. We're also taking on more coordination and alignment with early childhood initiatives. In the past year, we funded ten agencies to support projects that raised awareness of COVID 19, testing resources and emotional supports. Engaging 2460 youth in different activities. This summer, additional grants will be launched to support project placements in nonprofit organizations. The team is also planning for a two day youth forum in partnership with the Long Beach Commission on Youth and Families. Trauma informed. Long Beach is a downstream prevention. It was launched in the Health Department in 2018 to create a trauma informed Long Beach. It's a citywide initiative focused on reducing the impact of trauma inadvertently activated by organizations and city departments. Try a tree. Long Beach has completed trauma and resiliency one on one training for nearly 450 health and library staff, and now expanding this training to additional departments, including legislative staff and Parks, Recreation and Marine. An effort to become a trauma informed city. This training will also provide city organizations with tools on how to engage staff who may experience anxiety and or other social distress as facilities open up after being closed from COVID. And constituent services are again offered in-person. As a new intervention. The Health Department is launching the Long Beach Activating Safe Communities program to address gun violence through a three year $1.1 million Board of State Corrections and Community. California Violence Prevention or otherwise known as Calvert Grant Award. It'll be the OBE Ask program. We're working in partnership across sectors with community stakeholders and various departments, including the Police Department, Economic Development, Pacific Gateway, Parks, Recreation and Marine, Long Beach Unified School District, nonprofit community based organizations, faith based organizations and community residents. Its primary goals are to create a comprehensive and coordinated gun violence response system for victims of gun violence will reduce gun violence through effective street outreach and intervention programing, and activate safe community spaces to provide programs, resources and services in the Washington neighborhood. The primary activities include providing support to victims of gun violence. Implementing a street outreach interventionist model to prevent and interrupt gun violence. Providing case management to 30 youth. Hosting quarterly meetings. Community engagement. Events to build social connectedness. And supporting the Be Safe program at the seaside. Enforcing 14th Street parks through the Long Beach Recovery Act. The goal is to expand these efforts outside of the Washington neighborhood. Next intervention is our reentry program, which is home to system impacted persons seeking to integrate into their local community and families upon release. Many formerly incarcerated persons face multiple life challenges as they strive to reintegrate into their communities and families. The newest this is the newest work of the of the Division Community Impact Division's efforts. And the focus really is to expand and scale community based holistic care and services through community capacity building and service coordination, supporting family reunification models through two generational family approaches, including the fatherhood program, the increased father child bonds and father's economic stability, identifying partners for the development of a restorative center for formerly incarcerated service coordination and social connectedness. And aligning city and county alternatives to incarceration strategies wherever possible. During the summer of 2021, the city will issue $100,000 in direct community capacity building grants to local organizations working with persons formerly incarcerated and their families, including creating institutions of higher learning. It is also collaborating with the Office of Economic Development to pilot an integrated community care model, emphasizing mental health, employment and social entrepreneur entrepreneurship to support formerly incarcerated persons and family reunification efforts. This pilot will be supported by cross dependent by a cross-departmental effort with funds allocated from a Long Beach recovery effort. In the last program we share is a human trafficking program. The city has been engaged in human trafficking survivor supports for many years through various grant opportunities. Its program provides services to sex and labor trafficking survivors. The intervention intends to deter individuals from human trafficking and refer them to the City Prosecutor's Court Diversion Program. Survivors will avoid prosecution and have access to comprehensive port services, including emergency housing, mental health, mentoring, workforce training and job placement provided by selected providers. This program is administered in a partnership with the city prosecutor. Gems uncovered goodwill in the Cal State Long Beach Health Equity Center. This program's also developed a citywide awareness campaign, public service announcements and provided service provider trainings on trauma and resiliency approaches. When working with victims of human trafficking in January of 2021, two trainings on trauma and resiliency approaches were provided to more than 100 service providers. In its next iteration, this program will focus on transition age youth who are most at risk to be victims of human trafficking. This program will offer counseling, case management, employment services to any person between the ages of 16 to 25 who has experienced physical, sexual, financial or emotional harm resulting from trafficking. Exploitation. Overall between the general fund provided through the Racial Equity and Reconciliation Funding CARES Act and the Long Beach Recovery Act. Violence Prevention and Youth Development Efforts in Long Beach. We'll be funded at approximately $5 million, which is a huge boost in the work that we are doing as we focus on a future of a safer Long Beach. I thank you for your support. As close as my presentation, I'm available to respond to questions. Thank you for that. We have to Mark, I think those were the two the two major reports, correct? Do you have anything else to add before I turn to council? No, just. I think you'll see. We take this very seriously. I think there's been a lot of great work. There's obviously more we can do. And you know this we take it incredibly seriously when there's violence in our community. So we're prepared to answer questions and really be able to also answer some of the short term things that we're working on right now, but also some of the longer term efforts to try to break the cycle. Thank you. Do you think you have a have folks are cued up, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a few points. First, Chief, thank you so much for the presentation. Last time we had a presentation, I asked you for data. You definitely showed up with the data tonight, and that's what I love most about the presentation. Next, I'm incredibly proud to see the partnership with the Health Department demonstrating the comprehensive approach. That's important. Violence is a public health issue. We've proclaimed that as a city, and I believe it requires a holistic approach. I appreciate it, particularly the upstream downstream graphic and the bridge and the acknowledgment that some of those bridges have cracks in it. And unless we work on those cracks to keep people from falling into the stream in the first place, we'll continue doing downstream suppression. And that's not where we want to be. We want to be upstream, investing in opportunity, invest in people. I want to thank the chief for including the map and making the connection to the other determinants, the social determinants that also overlap with the areas that have violent crime. We've talked about this and these are the same areas that are overlaid with high incidences of COVID 19 is the same areas that have unemployment, elevated unemployment due to COVID 19, the same areas that have air quality issues, lack open space, public investment. There is a direct correlation. These are social determinants of health, and we're also seeing a number of our departments and strategy looking at this place based response from the recovery plan, looking at the collective impact model, the proposed economic empowerment zone, emphasizing that there is a direct economic issue within the same areas that have this violence. And so the more that we focus on these place based issues, I think the better. I want to thank the chief for calling out specifically the point that the resettlement received of recidivism. Arrests are arrests with guns. And that's important to note. So so I know we've heard I know Councilman Austin's talked about the prohibited possessor, but this is the first time that we've seen a presentation that makes the connection. How significant of an issue this is. And I think that's that that's particularly a game changer. I think we need to continue on that message points. I want to thank you also for bringing up and acknowledging the impact, the benefits of the coordinated response team. That's what I'm going to be looking for investment in. When we get to budget conversations. It's you're showing that is proven that's what I want to see a 40% reduction in and since the neighborhood walks program that's huge. We want to see how we are leveraging recovery funds to develop some of the same pilots in Washington in some of the other areas impacted by shooting. So that's that's incredibly important. So I want to I'm glad to see that the Washington neighborhood was able to pilot these things and is poised to go into north orbit. And one thing I would also state is I would I would love to see more information. I saw community intervention workers referenced as a part of I think it was the the the grant that we got from the one the $1 million grant focused on Washington neighborhood. That was the only place where I actually saw reference to community innovation and maybe intervention. Worker So I'm going to ask Kelly or whoever can speak to this, what's the plan for community intervention workers beyond that $1 million grant? Because when we came to council, we talked about identifying through recovery funds or whatever else is available, the opportunity to expand some of those strategies into north and other areas that have had shooting . So I'm curious more specifically to know, is that the plan for how we're are we going to utilize some of those recovery dollars from for violence prevention or some of those same strategies? Yeah. Uh, Vice Mayor, the through the Long Beach Recovery Act, we did identify additional resources, a half million dollars to be able to expand the interventionist opportunity beyond the Washington neighborhood. So we'll begin that pilot there and then work to expand it as well. Well, I would just say, with the funds that we've already identified, I want to see more. I want to see the next level of planning here on what specifically you're going to be able to commit to with the resources that we have available now. And communities, I think, deserve to know that. So in the next iteration or the report that comes back, we'd like to know which strategies I'm interested in, particularly in the neighborhood watch, community intervention workers, the things that the chief is standing up and saying, that's working. I want to make sure that that's being deployed. So all the issues that are impacted by shootings. And so I would love to see more specific more specific details there. Oh. Yes, Vice Mayor. So that is the next effort of the work. So what you've helped identify as in the recovery plan are the broad buckets. The policy direction for the dollars that would go toward certain efforts. What we're waiting for is in May, we expect to have the protocols from the federal government about exactly confirming how we can spend those funds. Then we start building all those individual budgets and creating basically the grant that would do those things. And then we will provide information on what are the next level strategies, how are we going to implement that? How would the 500,000 specifically be recommended to be spent and give all of that to the council? And then we start the program. So it's very similar to how we did the CARES act. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Rosemary Richardson. Next up is Camp Clemens and Haas. Thank you, Mayor. Actually, I was wondering if if we could hear public comment, if there's any. Before. I think there's one. The. Yes. Substance addiction. Yes, go ahead. We do have one person on the line for public comment for this item. I'd love to hear them. Please. Our first speakers, Tiffany Davey. Good evening, Mayor. City Council. Thanks for the presentations very in-depth. I came to this presentation wanting to see a bit more data as they become aware to me in being a victim of a violent crime. Actually, two in the year 2014, I have learned through that experience and what I did not see this evening in terms of data concerning not just gun violence. And I appreciated both the progress and where we are compared to 1991. I was concerned with the lack of data on and I'll give a content warning. Our sexual assault crimes, having dealt with Sergeant Correll and various detective over the years, have become aware of quite a few issues that I really would like to see discussed and opened up. As you know, I supported the Black Health Program and hoping to see that program expand to include prevention of these crimes as well, and trauma informed healing and the way in which we deal with these victims who also, you know, directly communicate with our district attorney's office and currently victims of violent crimes . It's just what's missing from that report that haunts me, concerned about it not being included in future discussions. That said, I know that there's so much work that the site team does too. So I'd like to see and know more about where we're headed with that in the future. I'd like to see when victims of crimes come to the city and attend meetings, that we are also not depressing their knowledge of their experience and seeking high level critique the highest level of experience as being a victim of a violent crime. We do have things to share and we do hope that these things get better within the city for everyone's daughters, your cousins, your aunt, your grandmother's, all of the women that we see and love in our community, they need to be supported in this way as well. I am hoping to hear discussion in the future as well on our facility at the community hospital. I can speak on that experience and there's not enough time. So again, really hoping we begin to have these conversations and include this data from a very significant portion of victims who experience this in the city. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you very much, Mr. Clare. First of all, I just wanted to say thank you so much to Chief Newnham and and Director Collopy for this presentation. I know that it is very important to me and my district to hear this because as you know, as one of the districts that has been affected by the most violent crimes and I know that this has been a discussion that has been going on among us and our city departments. But I think it's also important to take the opportunity like this and use our platforms to really speak directly to the concerns of our that our residents are making and making sure that we fully update not only not only ourselves and educate ourselves as council members, but update and educate our our residents on what's going on. I know the intent of this study session, for me at least, was to be able to see what the city has been doing, is doing and what the city plans to do in order to reduce violent crimes. I know that you know that that is what this presentation is doing. Of course, public safety is always and will always be our top priority as a city. And it's unacceptable to me that many of my residents have lived in fear because of the staggering increase in violence in in the district itself. At least that's how we feel here in the district. I really appreciate the the presentation that was given by Chief Luna, which indicates that violent crimes have actually gone down. So I appreciate that. But I know that my residents and in my district we ask as the data shows, you know, there have been a lot of violent crimes occurring. We as a city have have responded to a number of outlying, you know, in number in a number of ways that were outlined in today's presentation from Director Colby. And I really, really appreciate that. I think we need to continue to do that as we move forward. I'm thankful that that we are looking at that at this through through an equity lens. And I think that it is very important to continue looking at this as an equity issue and as, again, going back to what the data will show, showing that, you know, the violent crimes that are happening have other issues, why they are also happening. And even though we are in times of COVID, I do also believe that violent crimes have been happening in these areas for a very long time. And and, yes, COVID most certainly, you know, we have seen an increase. But one of the things that does worry me is that, you know, summer is coming. And as we all know, sometimes that is a time when violent crimes also increase. So one of the things that worries me is to see some of the programs that are doing so good, like the V programs that are walking alongside with our neighborhood residents and which. I have gone in so many, so many great feedback comments from my residents saying how important it is to have our police officers out there outside of their car and actually talking to them and talking to their children and how how important that is and how they want to see that continue. So I hope that we can find ways and and most importantly, find funds to be able to continue in those efforts. And one of the things that I would also like to share is that we need to continue providing ways to prevent violent crimes. And the other day, I had an amazing meeting with one of my residents, David McGill, and his organization, books and buckets there. And what they do is they're working to provide free basketball academy mentorship and education to help children in our Washington neighborhood and find a way out of what could be a path to to choosing violent crimes or turning a lifestyle that we don't want them to go into. So I really appreciate programs like that, and we need to be able to find ways to fund programs like that that will help our children in particularly this. This council and this organization is. Your 5 minutes is up. Okay. Then I just want to finish my sentence. I just want to say that funding organizations like this that will help children mentor them and help them get into college, I think is very important. I know college made a difference for me and my life, and I know that it's made a whole lot of difference for others . But thank you very much for the presentation. Continue your anger. Thank you, Mayor. And of course, I want to echo. The comments with the vice mayor Richardson, of course, a councilmember, and that I do want to congratulate. Thank you to Police Chief Luna and Director Colby for their presentations. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is a this is a will situations again where the the health department has really established a leadership role in how to address many of the issues that are are facing our city. And we need to continue to find ways that we can institutionalize many of the programs that they have and not always have to rely on grants and other foundation moneys to keep them going, because I think they provide a very, very important role in our city. We need to get them fully funded as best we can to achieve. Luna Your your analytics were great. They're green. We're glad that you're looking at engaging the community as much as you can, and that's very important. We all know that, that once we get to know our police officers out in the field, that the stress level goes down within the community. And that's very important. And I'm glad that you're really emphasizing that, that that's a true nature of community policing, is to be out there and rubbing elbows with with the community and letting get them to know you as as the ASA provides protection in our communities. One question that I do have is back back in the day. I mean, you all know, I have history with the city. The police department used to have advisory committees, a Latino advisory committee, an. Asian-American AAPI. Community. A LGBTQ. Advisory committee. Those committees are still in existence or are they pretty much on hold or have morphed into something else that you're so curious as to what the the status of those committees are at this point? Councilmember Muranga. So because you've been around for a while, you do remember during the recession we had a community relations division. And during the recession that got cut out of the budget. At that time, they were managing 14 different advisory groups. Some of them you named. And they were extremely helpful and productive, doing a lot of work with us. To this day, we still maintain a couple of them here and there, but it's a capacity issue for us. That's not to say that we believe they're any least important. Though recently we did develop a policy review advisory group that has a very diverse group of community members that involves clergy, academics, advocates, business leaders, and even an attorney from the ACLU. They're currently looking at our use of force policy. We believe, as it was written, it was part of a lot of the re-imagining of specifically in the use of force category. But now we have this group looking at it that's providing very valuable input to us. That's just one example. We're running that out of our Office of Constitutional Policing, but we always look for opportunities in the future if we can figure out from a capacity perspective. But even some of these programs we're running right now, they're all pilots, and I'm stealing from other places to make these units work until we can reduce some of these shootings out there. But thank you for that question. Thank you for the update. And I'm sure that when times get better, we may be able to re. Reinstate some of those. Advisory. Committees with with. The community relations support. And thank you again for engaging the community and for. Getting a hold of our stakeholders. And stakeholder input is, of course very much important and including our businesses and our community based organizations. On getting them more involved in what you do. And what you what you plan to do, I think is very important. So thank you, Mayor, for the time. That's all I have. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate the presentation from both departments and the comments from my colleagues. I do have a couple of issues. We're talking about violent crime. I'm curious, what are the resources that we're allocating to support victims? Because I imagine the victims of these crimes are also Long Beach residents. They've experienced tremendous trauma and understanding that they do have some rights under Marsy's law and that either the district attorney's office or the city prosecutor's office is providing some minimal support. Are we doing anything to help those victims with trauma informed recovery and programing counseling, anything like that? Good evening. Council Member Price Thank you for that question. Our department does amazing work when it comes to working with our victims of crime, specifically as it deals with child abuse, domestic violence. And sexual assault. One place that we fall a little short on is dealing with trauma, with shooting victims. That hasn't stopped us from looking at other opportunities to engage our victims. You stated one of the resources, and that is through the district attorney's office. We also work with the city prosecutor's office in town. But if you remember, about a year ago, we actually enacted a contract with a tip trauma intervention program. Unfortunately, because of COVID, that kind of put a stop to that. But we're reengaging as the COVID situation, or at least as my health director says, things are getting better. We're on the path to recovery. And hopefully we can get back on this program to to assist the victims. At the end of the day, we were victim centered. It is all about victims. And you're right on that is that should be our absolute number one priority. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. And I'm I know I'm going to run out of time here, so I may have to queue up, but I do want to hear your I want to hear your answers, not just myself talking so good. Moving to the health department, do we have any sort of programs that are designed to help victims equity focused programs? Because I imagine that a lot of the victims are also residents who are in in the target area that the chief utilized in his presentation. So we are engaging in the trauma informed and resiliency work and then working with our communities to build overall trauma and resiliency. We do not currently have a specific victim focused program. We have had some discussions about what those opportunities could be, and we would look forward to partnering with the police department as part of the TIP program to understand what additional needs there would be and what services we could look at supporting. Well, that's fantastic to hear, and I would be very, very interested in how the health department and the police department can work together to assist these victims of crimes, because in many cases, we just have, you know, innocent people who are being while every crime victim is innocent, but really their lives are forever changed as a result of the crimes that they're that are committed against them. You know, I know and I know Ms.. Collopy knows this. I'm not sure if the chief knows this, but I'm very involved in my my regular profession on some of our restorative justice measures in terms of intervening early with mental health people, with mental health issues and people with substance use program issues. And so my question would be, in terms of our early intervention strategies, do we work with the county at all or are we completely on our own in terms of what we're doing with our early intervention strategies? In regards to some of the issues that you've mentioned, because I've also noticed that with mental health, a lot of programing and things closed down as a result of COVID. So we did see more an increase in a lot of quality of life crimes, of poverty type offenses as a result of people not getting the treatment, the programs that they needed. So how are we working with the county to address those people early with an early intervention program? So at this time we are not currently coordinating with the county mental health programs. We do coordinate and partner with the Office of Violence Prevention. We are continuing to work through different options. So there was the opportunity through the Long Beach Justice Lab raid that where we had, um, we had a mental health provider who was located in the jail that was able to assess people while in the jail and then connect them to services as they were, as they were leaving. We continue to look at different opportunities to fund that capacity. We're also implementing, um, two or three new mental health providers located within our homeless services division to be able to really engage and look at different opportunities for, um, violence prevention in those spaces as well. Just the more that we can support healthy lifestyle, the less likely that will be that they would engage otherwise. Yeah. Councilwoman. 5 minutes. Okay. My one quick question. Do we still have a clinician in the jail? We're not currently have a clinician until that program has ended. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Councilwoman Sara. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank Chief Luna and Director Collopy for the presentation. I really appreciate the, you know, the collaborative. As far as the intersection of how we talk about crime and violence and how they're connected to the social and economic disparities and conditions, you know, somebody who's done violence prevention work, it's really significant for me to see this step in this direction. And I also appreciate the data that's presented by Chief Luna. It's really important to see, even within the short term amount of time, that the pilot program around the Neighborhood Walk program that started that, we're able to get these data that helps just demonstrate to us not just for , you know, how it's been going. And I look forward to asking more questions as this will be an agenda item for our public safety committee and to talk about other community policing practices as well. You know, and I also want to make sure to address that I think that this is a right the right the right step , the step in the right direction around how we're doing approaching violence and crime in a comprehensive way. I think that with the discussion around how social and economic factors play a role in how we do do violence and crime prevention, particularly in areas of high crime, as demonstrated with such as the Washington neighborhood and how they're really places that are positioned for these, you know, hopefully economic empowerment zone where we really think about not just social programs but also economic programs as well, that can help ensure that we're providing a really holistic approach to developing and supporting individuals and their families to break the cycle of poverty and transition into a place and gain ability and security. And my question is for Ms.. Director Collopy is a lot of people always say, especially in the funding world, you know, prevention and intervention programs, they just take a really long time. It's a long term approach. But really I think that there are short term metrics and evaluation that is done to demonstrate that it does work. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about what those metrics are within the program you share on short term, mid-term and long term to demonstrate that they do work and they're not necessarily long term strategies that they do have short term outcomes. Woman. I'm going to, um, I'm going to have you have on a Lopez who is leading those efforts speak to the evaluation conversations. Thank you, Councilwoman, for that great question. One of the things that we're doing as part of the violence prevention effort is really to focus in on the collective impact approach. And part of that is not only designing specific goals that we're going to track, but agreed to as a collective body. What are those data metrics now in the short term, the things that we could look at in terms of social cohesion, cohesiveness, engagement, immediate results, looking at people accessing services, I think in the long run we're really looking at that change over time and economic stability, family reunification, reduction in violence. So we are looking at what that metrics will look like. We are trying to also coordinate this with the data equity working team that the city has in place under the racial reconciliation framework. Great. I love I love to hear more about it and see more. Are these metrics as somebody with a research background, this is stuff that I actually love to read at night about and think about. I know as big as that sound, I think about prevention, intervention all the time and how do we measure it and how do we demonstrate that it does work? Because it does. And I believe that we can demonstrate. So thank you so much. Thank you. I want to I want to get clarification on a question that Councilman Price asked, because I was surprised at the answer, and I'm not sure that that the answer was correct or maybe needs clarification. Mr. MODICA Can you clarify the clinician question? Because I know there were some changes around code, but that program is still a part of the city and will continue. Isn't that right or am I wrong? Yes. And I'd like to have the chief talk a little bit about the operational model. We did have some changes due to COVID. Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. If I understood the question. Right. If we're talking about mental health one, if we're talking about our mental evaluation teams, they're still out there working with the L.A. County clinicians. If we're talking about our contract with the guidance center, where we have a clinician in our jail that did stop temporarily during COVID, obviously, jail operations were heavily impacted during that time. But the contracts back on and that individual is back with us and integrating to everything that we're doing. I hope that does answer the question. But no, I think that actually answers the question. And I just want to just re-emphasize just as the when I heard Councilman Price ask that question, I just was really that's a really important program. It's one that I've been really I've followed. And, you know, I know a lot of us were involved in getting that program started there at the jail, and I'm really grateful it's still there. And let's just work to make sure that that program continues. I think it's really it's really, really critical. So thank you. And thank you to Councilman Price for for asking about it. Councilman Austin. Thank you. And I really appreciate this discussion here tonight. I mean, obviously, it's very, very important, the number of slides I have notes on here, and I'll try to do my best to stay within the 5 minutes. But Chief Luna outlined a historical violent crime stat illustrated. What I think many of us, particularly those of us who were around in the eighties and early nineties actually already know, is that we have a much safer city than we were 30 years ago today. Obviously, we we want to be safer and we want to reduce any violent crime in our city. And I think as a council member, Sorrell said, I think we are headed in the right direction with this approach, particularly a collaborative approach. I'd love to see collaborations with our departments, you know, breaking down the silos and and structural barriers. This is this is this is really encouraging. The the data is very, very important. And, you know, one of these issues that I have been, you know, kind of harping on and focusing on for for several years now is the prohibited possessors and getting guns out of the hands of, you know, those who are higher risk to committing crimes with those guns. Right. Those individuals we know. And and it's clearly clear that the focus there is yielding high percentage results for us. Right. And so we as a council need to continue to to try to find and focus on efforts like this. In my opinion, she going to mention gun sales being up 64% nationally. Right. And that doesn't surprise me. I mean, over the last year, you know, people a year ago probably felt like, you know, that the world was about to end or, you know, they felt less secure. And we saw people lined up, you know, buying ammunition and guns, you know, everywhere. But what it doesn't account for is the illegal guns trade and the and the ghost guns that are out there in the market, the market that we don't even know about, you know, we can't quantify. So this is this is a pretty, pretty interesting piece of data. And for me, what I heard here was a lot of good information. But I think there's a there's a there's a tie or correlation there that we can't ignore. I'm not sure I would love to get more data on this because I want to know what the causes of the violence really are, right? Where to root and what's causing the violence. Is it is it economics? Is it the illicit market? You know, it's a neighborhood beat geographics. I think these are things that we need to also explore. Go back to slide number nine in the chief's report where he actually gave us an example of a five time repeated prohibited firearm offender. Right. And that the consistency was that this individual had been, you know, arrested five times with on gun crimes. Right. But if you look at the arrest, most of those arrests were also related to drugs. Right. In substance for sales. Right. And so I think there there's a correlation there that we can't ignore. And when we related to our public health approach to violent violence prevention, I think one piece of that plan that I'd like to see us focus a little bit more on is how we deal with that challenge of drug abuse in our city, how we how we as a city, and what can we do to strategically look at, you know, cleaning people up and discouraging such use? I think that that really is a is a root common denominator with so much of our violent crime. We really can't ignore that. And so, you know, and I'm not talking about going back to the old practices of, you know, the war on drugs that, you know, don't work. I'm talking about, you know, innovative strategic approaches and obviously recognize that this is a human experience and part of it. I had several other comments, but my colleagues, I think, really addressed many of them. Like I said, I really appreciate the discussion here on this very, very important item. I think we are headed in the right direction and we need to continue, you know, utilizing data, but also testing and, you know, our our public health approach to violence prevention. And so those are my comments. I appreciate the presentation this evening. Thank you, Councilman. Then there's. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, everyone, for all those wonderful comments, too, and suggestions and thoughtfulness. I think that it's very important that we unite together. One of the things that that my residents keep asking is, you know, how early release has affected our violent crime status. And maybe, Chief, you can answer that. I know that in my check ins, some of my residents have asked if we can find out how many of those early release persons do we have in our district. Is that something that we can that we can share, that we have knowledge of also, you know, because there's been so many regulations that have changed during COVID. Early, early releases being one of them. I know that that's one of the concerns that my residents have, is to see if that has has influenced the high crime or the shootings that have happened in my district. A. Yes, ma'am. Councilwoman Cindy has in regards to early release. I want to preface this with saying that we as a police department, for me as your chief, I don't believe in in putting people in prison for minor offenses. I think we've been there, done that. I think the proof is there that that doesn't always work. So when we transition over to early releases, if people are being released early on, good behavior and then there's a way for them to come out and transition, that's great. What we're focused on and a lot of the statistics that I talked about were individuals who are getting out immediately, finding a way to possess a firearm and victimizing members of our community. Those are the ones that we're definitely focused on. And from an early release perspective, we know there's more early releases as a result of COVID. We've been trying to pin down numbers. We could work to try and get more specific numbers about where people are going once they're released. It is extremely difficult to track. A lot of the systems in the county and in the state are very antiquated and a lot of people, when they're released from prison and or jail, will usually give you an address that they never go to. A lot of them will say they're transient and a lot of them, unfortunately, are within our homeless population. So there is a challenge. There doesn't mean that we can't roll up our sleeves, but it it would be a hand search and it would be challenging. But it's a very good question and a significant concern that we have at the police department. Thank you for the question. Thank you, Chief, for answering that. I also wanted to say that I totally do appreciate the reentry program that our health department has. I think that that's very important for those that, you know, are getting released early because of good behavior or those that have gone to jail. When they were 16, 17, and are now, you know, ten years later. And they they did you know, they changed their ways and they need help in in, you know, reshaping their lives. I think that that's very important that we have those kind of programs in place. So I appreciate that. And thank you chiefly for answering that. Councilman Marco. Thank you. My questions were a lot along the lines of Councilman's and De Haas. I was listening to a report related to a lot of the violent crime and its correlation with. The gang population. And even though that gang might not be prevalent in a particular city, they may have correlated with or what you have. And while they were in jail and I was hoping to get Chief Luna's perspective on what programs or what solution we could put in place if, in fact, one, if, in fact, he believed that to be partially true or completely true. And what could we do? I know we talk a lot about job programs and a lot of. Programs that are longer term. And we talk about upstream and downstream. What about like. Today is the day you're getting released. What can we provide you in terms of resources to put you on that bridge? Councilmember Mongo from. I think that may be a better question for Director Colby in regards to reentry programs because her department specializes in that area. But to answer your your initial question about gangs. When I look at the, the shootings that we have, um, based on our statistics, it looks like about 30 to. Just under 33% of our shootings appear to be gang related. So that would mean that, what, 67% are not. So that is is all over the board between just car to car shootings, people who get angry for whatever reason. And there's there's a lot of different disputes and things of that nature. And I think when you start looking at some of the challenges that we face historically with with violence, it's some of the more simple things are people, individuals that are unable to have a conversation without resorting to violence, an argument in today's environment. And somebody reaches for a gun. But if if Kelly can help me out with the the reentry. Poll, I appreciate the statistic, because the statistic I heard from another city was significantly higher percentage. And that so that because that was going to lead me to my next question, which was do you think there would be a direct impact if we instituted the violent crime gang unit? But it sounds like. 33% is still an important percent. It absolutely is. I mean, if we can reduce our numbers by 33%, that would be great. But I know that the question comes up about the the gang unit. We still have a gang unit. We don't have a gang filled unit. But as you know, because you've been the, the, the budget oversight person for us prior to Council member Austin, it's a matter of resources and figuring out where they go. And those are reductions that we had to make in order to make our budget. So and I've said this in front of this council in community, I'm not going to cry about what I don't have. I'm going to do the best I can with what I've got. And that's what I've shown tonight with this coordinated response team and this neighborhood watch program. And I say I've got to Assistant Chief he Bish. He's kind of the the architect of all that. And he's here to answer any questions from any of you regarding any of those two pilot programs. But got to make do with what you have and try and make a difference with it. Thank you. Well, I appreciate what your officers are doing with what they have. And I also know that there's been some great results in some of our programs. I know Councilman Zendejas has connectivity to the Reentry Integration and Employment Services Program in her district, and we may need more programs like that across our city to make sure that we're building those bridges everywhere. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank Chief Luna and Director Collopy for their presentations. I know when council put this item forward, we saw that. There was an uptick in crime. And we wanted to make sure that that was being addressed and that we were doing everything that we could do to make sure that our city was safer. I know that that crime has gone up, you know, over the last year and that many of our residents did not feel safe and they don't feel safe walking around , taking their kids to school. And just being in the neighborhood. And I've heard. From a lot of them, and I know that we weren't alone as a city, that we're experiencing the uptick in crime. But the numbers look good. It looks like that is decreasing. And I just want to thank your officers and I want to thank the command staff for all the hard work that I know that you guys are doing and women out there every single day. I also know it to. Be true that it's important. To prevent crime before it even starts. And getting all those guns off the streets were important. So I was happy to see that great work. I'm also the the CRT team was very effective. A 36% decrease in citywide shootings is significant. So I was I was happy to see that. And also, I want to say, you know. As a as a former. Police officer, I understand the importance of our community relations division. I know how important that was to our community. And it was a great tool for preventing crime. And and I know that resources were tough. I also, you know, previously worked the game unit. And I, I know that we did a lot of good work out there, too. During the days and in preventing crime. And unfortunately, I know that budgetary, budgetary reasons, those those those programs have been cut. But I definitely one of the things I love about having the boots on the ground and getting out in the community, and I know your officers loved doing that, too. So devoting those resources to community policing, I think is going to be instrumental not only just in preventing crime, but also just having a good relationship between our police department and our community. And one of the things that I just want to make sure that I understand is that future funding for things like community policing or your of the CRT teams. And and I also want to understand what strategies and how these this funding will be allocated. So I know that we will hear back from you in from city management. So I look forward to understanding more of that. But again, thank you for the presentation. And I just really also deeply appreciate all of my colleagues comments on these issues, too. Thank you. Okay. Let me go back up to Canterbury Ringa. Then then back to Vice Mayor Richardson and then we'll circle again to Councilman Diaz. And I haven't said anything yet and then I'll go after councilman's in the house. Mayor Actually, may I put that up? But too, I didn't hear a motion to support the. Motion to grant the report. Richardson. Thank you. Just a couple of things. There was a question earlier about engagement with the county. We made a motion a while back to go explore Measure J. I spoke with some folks at the county about Measure J, and I know we're not quite there yet, but the intent of Measure J was a budget allocation of noncommittal 25% of uncommitted funds in the county would be redirected into opportunities, violence prevention, youth opportunity, all of those things. And they're beginning the process of shaping the uses of the funds now. And so I want to ask a question of Kelly. Have we gotten to the table and we joined the committees and gotten to the table and begin engaging with the county around Measure J. Yes, we do have health department staff who are participating in the conversations at the county level around Measure J. They have a number of different committees and we have folks participating in it. Fantastic and how we have we forecast it when we think M.J. will be available. Now. We don't have any insight into that yet. Okay. Because that's going to be a big opportunity. While paying for the county's funding as the second largest city in the county, we should be paying attention to measure day because it's going to be an opportunity for us to continue to invest in a lot of the strategies we talked about today. The other thing I would say is that, you know, across across the nation, the increase in crime has been directly, directly attributed to the pandemic. And there's data that shows that the economic crisis related to the pandemic. And so I'd like to just understand, as we begin the process of reopening and obviously safely reopening, we have to be thinking about where how do we activate those high crime spaces as we reopen? When we came up with Be Safe a few years back, it was that same premise. It was based on summer night lights, and it was, how do we activate the parks in these communities to make them safe? And as we think about where the crime is taking place, we have to connect that to our recovery strategy. It just makes sense. So so I'd love to know what specific strategy moving forward we're doing in the parks, in the business corridors, in the areas that have been hardest hit, particularly over the past year during the pandemic , as we move forward, as we recover from it. But great feedback from everyone. Thank you council members and house as well for your motion and I'm happy to support this. Thanks. Cats are super not gonna. All right. Thank you. Great presentations, great commentary. Thank you for that. I wanted to provide a response on a topic that was brought up during public comment, and that is the START program at Community Hospital. And what people may not realize is that when the former operator left community hospital. The Sexual Assault Response team left at the same time, and I've said this publicly before, but we actually have three new council members since I said it originally, I believe it's an appropriate topic for April. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but I made a commitment to the former operator of the program at Community Hospital that I would do everything in my power to bring that program back. And I've been consistent on this message from day one that that was a vital program and it needs to be brought back. So as our emergency room comes back online, I'll be working harder on that. And from the words that are used tonight, Councilwoman Pryce brought up victims, I think, trauma informed. Well, that's right. In the wheelhouse. So the sexual assault response team. So I'm happy to continue supporting that. And to Chief Luna, thank you very much for the statistics on on gang related gun violence. 67% is not in in the presence of politicians. That's called a supermajority. But I might frame it that if anyone suggests that every single shooting is gang related, that person would be wrong two thirds of the time. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Van de Haas. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Councilmember Super now for saying that again. And I think it's very important for for us to know that specific statistic. I personally thought it was reverse. And so I really, really appreciate that statistic. And it gives me it gives me hope going forward. I think that that's very important. One of the things that I also wanted to ask, Chief, that my my district usually, you know, has been talking about why are we not bringing, you know, the gang unit back? And and one of the things I keep telling them also is, you know, funding we don't have funding for that. But one of the things that I would like to ask is, if you are your staff can please, you know, describe or define the difference between a gang unit and a gang unit. A gang field unit. Yes, Councilmember. And there has. So our gang enforcement section, which is comprised of a group of detectives, investigate any and all gang crime. There are some overlaps, for example, with our homicide detail and others. But if it's related to a gang incident, that gang investigative unit will work on that project. When we had a gang filled team, they were detectives, but they were assigned to the field to strictly enforce, primarily to gather intelligence and information and then coordinate with other resources within the department. When that went away, the gang enforcement team in the field went away. We didn't stop doing that work. What happened is each patrol division has a directed enforcement team, and that team is responsible for counsel complaints. For example, a commander goes to a community meeting. It's part of listening to the community. What are the challenges? And typically they're the ones handling those challenges for all of your constituents. They work on narcotic complaints. They work on neighborhood problems. There's a whole list of things they do. They're also primarily responsible. Even now, in the last couple of days, as we were preparing for worst case scenario for potential civil unrest. There are primary unit that does that. They are now part of this coordinated response team. We have pulled them from those areas so they can focus on this. And there's actually a couple of gang detectives who are also assigned to this team to make sure that if there's any gang related incidences, they're in the middle of it , providing the right information to the right people. So we get the right people off the street who are committing violence around the city. And that's probably the quickest summary I can give you. But we can definitely spend more time in the future talking about that. Thank you for the question. Thank you, Chief Luna. And I just wanted to clarify that for the residents. I know some of the residents advocate for gang unit. Some of the residents advocate against a gang unit. I'm not completely convinced that we need a game unit. I think that, you know, we need to focus on prevention and we need to focus on, you know, the crimes that are being out there right now. I'm question for Kelly. Director Colby, I know that we do have one of the things in my district that we do have is we have central chat that also offers reentry programs. And I wanted to share that with everyone to I'm very glad that they do. One of the things that I was wondering is that the programs that were are offered through our health department. Are they offered like at our locations? I know that they might be offered at the Health Department, but I know that the Health Department is kind of like on the opposite side of where my district is. So I was wondering how those programs are are dispersed throughout the city and where they're most needed. Yes, Councilman. So the health department actually has sites all around the city. Most of the programs so such as the new reentry program and others. Some of that is funding to community based organizations to provide those funds, you know, to provide those services directly within the community. In other cases, you may be located at. You know, we're looking at the different sites for the the Center for Families and Youth in the north Long Beach, though it will be renamed, is is a site where we'll be offering a lot of youth programing and other. But then we also have the in central Long Beach in the MLK Park. There are also opportunities for additional programing there. So there are multiple sites where we can offer programing or we work very closely with community based organizations located in the community to be able to provide those services. Thank you, Director. Thank you very much. I think that concludes the council questions and comments. I'm just going to make some a few comments and then we'll go to the receiving part of the study session. I want to just broadly say that a couple of things. I think first is I want to bring us back to kind of the moment that we're in. And I think that it's been said it was said a few times tonight. We have to view our work around violence prevention as part of our broader economic recovery, around our recovery in general as a as a community. I'm coming out of the pandemic, and I think that's something that's important for us to recognize, is what you're seeing right now across the country is you are seeing some pretty significant challenges around violent crime happening in cities across America. And I think the chief will will confirm that almost every city in the U.S., every major urban city, has seen an increase in crime during COVID 19. And it's easy to to to understand why and I'm quoting some of this from our own chief and from what I've read in some other studies as well. And you have, of course, oftentimes kids out of school and high unemployment and a loss of jobs creation conditions can be created that make it more difficult to ensure that there is a safe community. And of course, that's not the only reason, but the pandemic has certainly made things much more difficult. So part of our recovery, when we look at our recovery for our community's health, when we're looking at recovery around jobs in the economy, community safety is also a part of our recovery. It has to be centered around what we're doing, which is a big reason why I believe the council also set aside money from the Recovery Act specific to violence prevention. So we have basketball programs coming back. We have part programs like the Be Safe programs in our neighborhoods coming back. We're focused on ensuring that the community has access to strong health programs. So that is all on on its way. And I'm very grateful for that. So, you know, my message to folks I talked to is this is part of our recovery in this conversation, I think is a big part of that. I also think it's important to note that whenever we talk about a crime, whether it's violent crime, which we've seen has gone up, particularly in this last year, or whether we talk around, talk around, talk about homicides or violent crime in general, we have to put it within historical context. Just comparing one month to one month or even one year to one year doesn't give us enough data to understand what's hap what the trends are over the course of the last five , ten, 20 and 50 years. And so our challenge today is real, and every single person affected is kind of for us. I know it's painful and we want to see everyone completely safe. I'm also grateful that the crime rate of the nineties, of the eighties, of the 2000 and all of those years, that that is also in our past and that we have less homicides and less violent crime than we've had. And so that's an important part, I think, of this conversation as well, as well as that historical context. And I'll say lastly, which I think is an important piece, is we have to recognize where we're also living right now in the middle of a gun epidemic. And what is happening right now with the availability of guns to the general public is disgraceful in our country. And we know that there have been little to no movement in the in the Congress some in our state. But but but but restrained because of of federal federal measures around what we can do around gun safety legislation. Just simple measures, around background checks and around ensuring that ghost guns are taken off off the streets, have fallen to the wayside in that congressional debate. And so we have to be very cognizant as a body that our police officers are confiscating more and more guns. Every few months off the street. So we're talking more guns today than we did a year ago. And we continue to look more and more guns because there are more guns today in this country. Then there's also we're many years ago. So we have a challenge around access to guns, and that's a piece of it. That's also, again, not the whole solution, but it's one that I'm really hopeful that this country can can address as well. I want to I want to think we talked there was also some discussion and I saw some and I think call up and direct call this presentation around upstream and downstream. I appreciate the programs within the health department that do that work, but we also should be thinking broader. It is the health department, but about prevention. It's not just the Health Department's job. It's it's as we all know, it's embedded in the work that our library system does. It's embedded in the work our parks system does. It's happening at our schools at Long Beach Unified. It's access to community college education. And so the work around preventative prevention, around violence is not only solely limited, of course, to the work that's going on in the health department. Under the police department, it's really a community wide effort within organizations and within. But I personally believe that our education institutions have by far the biggest opportunity to make impacts as it relates to community safety. So those are our partners and they're involved in this work with us, and I want to recognize the work that they do also every single day. Thank you, Chief, with a presentation. Thank you, Miss Coffey, for the presentation. And with that, we'll call a roll call vote to receive and file a report. District one. I district to you. I. District three. I. District four. All right. District five. I. District six. I. District seven. I. District eight. All right. District nine. I know she carries.