For a Healthy Sonoma County

Issues - Public Safety and Gangs

We need a new set of tools to address the challenges we face in ensuring public safety and keeping our youth out of gangs, and in schools.  Sonoma County is no longer just about redwood trees, vineyards, and spectacular views.  We’ve grown, and our law enforcement strategies must grow along with us.

Over the last decade the number of our youth involved in gangs has increased dramatically.  Merely locking those up is no longer good enough.  New initiatives that aggressively promote education over incarceration and fully funded programs that provide positive role models and alternatives to the gang lifestyle are essential.

I spent over 10 years of my life working with gang and at-risk youth in the public schools, churches, SAY offices and Boys and Girls Clubs.   I worked in two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in our country, Humboldt Park Chicago and South Central LA.  I speak Spanish fluently and have worked in the Latino community for over 15 years.

 I know first hand the issues facing our youth today.  Minority and disadvantaged youth need to be empowered so that they are not tempted to join gangs and that is why I am proposing a County paid mentorship program for youth which has the potential of saving millions of dollars in probation and incarceration.  We must address this problem with real strategies, real prevention funding, not just committees.

But gang prevention is only the beginning.  Public confidence that law enforcement personnel are fair, impartial, and dedicated to protecting the rights of all residents is as crucial to keeping our communities safe as cops on the street.  Critical incidents and deaths in custody must continue to be fully investigated, and when gaps in training, protocols, or officer conduct are identified, they must be acknowledged and addressed.

We need to offer both support and accountability in order to equip our law enforcement with the tools they need to do their jobs.

Early this year, law enforcement agencies across the county began a series of 2-day trainings to teach officers how to respond to individuals in mental health crisis.  I applaud this forward thinking approach, and believe that we need to establish a full time mobile crisis team, complete with trained mental health professionals, to respond to these calls for service.