08/03/2020
PBC Statement on Columbus City Council’s “Reimagining Public Safety” Legislation and 7/27 Meeting
PBC acknowledges Columbus City Council's action on the “Reimagining Public Safety” legislative package to protect citizens from the police through banning military-grade equipment, limiting no-knock warrants, and adding hate group affiliation to background checks. But PBC also demands stronger protections for citizens, including eliminating no-knock warrants entirely and a complete ban on the use of crowd control agents such as projectiles, mace, and pepper spray. And overall, we want to point out that all of these are just momentary, stopgap measures in the long fight towards safer and stronger communities.
Also, we are unsure how the proposed Civilian Review Board reimagines public safety, especially in light of the lack of detail in the current legislation about its structure, as well as its apparent lack of disciplinary power. We are also concerned about how quickly the CRB legislation was put up for a vote, and we would like to see multiple channels for community input as the mayor’s office determines how to implement this CRB prior to the November vote. But in general, we do not feel like any kind of CRB is a move toward our mission of defunding the police, since creating a CRB directs yet more money away from the community itself while failing to challenge the institution of policing itself.
No matter their details, these reforms alone will never be enough. We want to see the $360 million police budget decreased over time and redistributed to community resources and non-police approaches to public safety. Public safety for the most marginalized people in our society results not from police presence but from more equitable communities, as well as community-based approaches to harm prevention and transformative justice.
We disapprove of Council's appropriation of over $1.5 million to the police and municipal court to facilitate evictions and imprisonment, which are detrimental to public health especially in the age of COVID-19. We approve of Council’s allocation of over $26 million to community support and resources, including laptops for students, COVID-19 outreach and testing, rent support, nutrition, and more - these things will support public health and community safety.
We look forward to continuing the conversation on how the city can better spend our money to support residents and how we can reimagine public safety in Columbus. We hope that Columbus City Council can expand its understanding of public safety and work more closely with the community going forward.
