DATE: October 27, 2020
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Manager
SUBJECT
Title
Update on Public Safety Community Engagement Project
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the City Council receives and provides feedback on this report summarizing the results-to-date from a community engagement effort about public safety issues in the Hayward community.
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SUMMARY
As a result of community concerns about policing services, policies, programs, and procedures brought forth amid increased national conversation about policing and racial equity, as well as several officer-involved shootings in Hayward, the City Council directed staff to implement a public safety community engagement project designed to elicit further information and experiences throughout the Hayward community to inform future policy discussions.
From August through October 2020, staff worked with consultants to administer a resident survey and with community members and organizations to hold conversations about public safety in Hayward. At the writing of this staff report, over ,1700 community members have provided their input on public safety and policing in Hayward by participating in this community engagement project. An interdepartmental team of 20 staff worked on compiling and analyzing the data, and summarizing common safety concerns, themes, and attitudes.
Participants in the community conversations indicated that their main safety concerns in Hayward were racism and homelessness. The conversations brought forth themes of Hayward’s diversity and complexity, a desire for all community members to feel safe, and a connection between neighborhood cohesion and feelings of safety. Many community members have positive views of the police, and among those who do not, their perspectives were informed by concerns about over-policing, specific negative experiences, and trust, systemic racism, and intergenerational trauma.
At the writing of this report, only top-line aggregated survey results were available. The survey results indicated a general satisfaction and feeling of safety interacting with Hayward police, but a significant minority of respondents reported negative or ambivalent responses to these general safety-related questions. Close to 60% of survey respondents indicated a feeling that the relationship between Hayward Police and Hayward residents is positive. A majority of survey respondents support reducing the police budget and redistributing it towards other community services while 60% support establishing a participatory committee for dictating how that funding is reallocated. However, proposals to freeze police hiring, limiting equipment purchases, and banning spending on police facilities were not supported by a majority of survey respondents. A full 82% of respondents support using 3-1-1 as an urgency hotline, and 56% strongly support it.
Staff will continue to reach out to community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and community members to understand their experiences and perspectives on public safety in Hayward.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Aggregated Survey Results
Attachment III Non-Random Online Survey Collector Data
Attachment IV Supplemental Quotes from Community Conversations