Redwood City police hold event to improve safety; tout recent work in engaging youth

The event was put on by nonprofit Thrive Alliance and included panelists Mulholland; Susan Manheimer, former San Mateo police chief; Kalimah Salahuddin, Jefferson Union High School District trustee, and Nick Jasso, with Fresh Lifelines for Youth.

Jasso, who grew up in San Mateo County, was policed in his community from a very young age, like getting tickets for riding a bike without a helmet and the proper reflectors. When he was 14, he got into a fight at school and was arrested and sent to juvenile hall and got probation, while a similar incident with a white student months later only got him suspended. Jasso called for safety resource officers to leave schools to rebuild community trust and to form a youth advisory board to meet with officers and provide new solutions and perspectives.

“It’s harmful to our young Black and brown communities,” Jasso said of school resource officers. “These police contacts, in the form of arrests, decrease our chance of graduating high school, which decreases our chances of going to college, which increases our chances of being incarcerated.”

In response to Jasso’s experience, Mulholland said the Redwood City Police Department is trying things differently, citing the recent summer example of kids on bicycles causing damage downtown. Kids caused property damage and lit illegal fireworks while biking in downtown Redwood City, with incidents of confrontation and calls for action.

The police worked with Redwood City Police Activities League and Redwood City Together to develop relationships to find non-carceral solutions. The department has started a one-year pilot initiative to nurture relationships between youth aged 12 to 24. The program is called the Action, Create and Engage and will focus on reducing criminal activities by nurturing relationships between community members, police and kids. Mulholland said he and the department had to try a different way of enforcement to help all involved.

“We are very encouraged by the outcomes we have seen thus far. We have seen reductions in disruptive and criminal behavior,” Mulholland said.

The Redwood City Police Department has changed several programs, policies, training and equipment to improve the department. The department has instituted a body-worn camera program that will be expanded to cameras on vehicles. It also started a police advisory committee in 2021 to review the use-of-force policy. A mental health clinician was also hired in Redwood City to provide mental health services as part of the San Mateo County Community Wellness and Crisis Response Team. Mulholland said community listening sessions hosted by the city led him to feel defensive but made him realize and listen to community concerns, noting his life experiences as a white male police executive are different from others.

Jasso, who lives in Redwood City, was glad of the approach to dealing with kids and called on more community organizations and residents to step in and mentor kids. Salahuddin liked the program’s success but also wanted law enforcement to do internal work to address bias and ensure the communities are represented in the way they wanted.

“Any time we try for community safety, our community’s safety is always sacrificed for the majority, and we have to be able to advocate for our safety too,” Salahuddin said.

Salahuddin said communities of color were not allowed to define what is safe. She said many community members do not feel safe, particularly community members who are Black or people of color. She shared her experiences as a Black woman of getting pulled over so much that her daughters don’t drive and instead use Uber, with many other community members she knew having similar stories. She encouraged others to acknowledge problems and not get defensive or dismissive about calls for change.

“How do we build a bridge? We first must acknowledge the problem and the part we all play. How do we work together to build systems that will also provide safety and include definitions of the community in safety,” Salahuddin said.

Manheimer said in her 37 years in policing, including as interim Oakland police chief, the current times remain the most transformative ones in policing. She said many policy decisions require nuanced conversations that lead to a common ground and resolution, with most people stuck in an either-or situation. Manheimer noted Salahuddin was right that all communities needed to feel safe and safe around the police. She said differing needs, priorities and concerns across many communities affect policy.

“I believe police across this country recognize the dissonance and discord made us stand up and embrace as a profession, the transformative moment of change and reform,” Manheimer said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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