August 10, 2020
Dear Greenbelt City Council Members,
We support Mayor Colin Byrd’s leadership and courage in calling Greenbelt residents to rethink what public safety and policing mean for our community.
His proposed Greenbelt Fair and Just Policing Act of 2020 is an important first step in needed policy changes and codifications into municipal law around de-escalation; use of force; interventions when other officers use unnecessary force; civil liberties; transparency, data, and reporting; civilian oversight; racial profiling and bias; militarization; hiring; and accountability. Please deliberate carefully and support these proposals.
We also ask that the Greenbelt City Council shift police from social service roles:
- Remove School Resource Officers from schools so there is more money for education and counseling services.
- Reduce the work police have been asked to take on that can be better addressed by mental health and social service professionals. Repurpose a significant amount of money that is earmarked for the police budget for the kinds of mental health and social services that have been shown to enhance public safety. For example, shifting more money to CARES for expanded services including a 24-hour special crisis response unit would be more impactful and effective.
Mayor Byrd's recent decision to inform residents of aspects of the Police-Union Collective Bargaining Agreement that would seek to preserve LEOBR protections for our local department regardless of proposed changes to state law was important, timely, and effective. We note that public feedback did help to get removal of the local LEOBR provision. We were disappointed that consideration of further public feedback was deferred to the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. We look forward to an open and transparent process for next year’s agreement.
The Greenbelt Police Department is not immune to racial bias in citations and use of force. Statistics taken from the Law Enforcement Accreditation Report (CALEA) for 2019-2020 about the Greenbelt Police Department indicate the need to examine and address racism in policing practices. According to the CALEA report, over the past four years: (1) people of color either living in or driving through Greenbelt have received 8,768 citations compared to 1,407 for white people and (2) Use of force was used on people of color 56 times in comparison to 5 times for white people.
Therefore, we ask each Council Member to join Mayor Byrd in efforts to re-evaluate the city’s priorities around policing and racial equity. Given the troubling racial history of our city (beginning with the whites-only rules from the federal government), and the data from the CALEA Report, this review is long overdue. This is not a time for business as usual as we face multiple crises.
In addition to a crisis in policing nationwide, there is a pandemic and recession disproportionately killing and ravaging Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) and their families. How many of these deaths are in Greenbelt?
Our city needs to take action on racial disparities in housing, education, health and welfare, income, and wealth — including the ugly reality that some people who have lost their jobs and income due to Covid-19 may be evicted from their homes and apartments. There are concrete steps that our city can take to address these disparities, including continuing to work to stop evictions and to assist small and independent businesses.
We ask you to carefully view all your Council decisions for city governance with an antiracist perspective and racial equity lens. At this time when stark injustice is so clear, you have the capacity and obligation as the City Council to take specific steps to ensure that Greenbelt lives up to the community pledge to be a “respectful, welcoming community that is open, accessible, safe and fair.” How else can we redesign our community in service to racial equity without such mindful consideration?
Thank you for your service to our city.
Signed,
- Greenbelt Racial Equity Alliance (GREA)
- Prince George’s County Peace & Justice Coalition