Report: Community Conversation 1/20/2023

cc_lights_489x489_circle.pngPublic Safety Summary

The first town-wide One Hillsborough community conversation was held on 20th of January 2023 at the Hillsborough municipal building, in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Listed below is the excerpt related to Public Safety. The full report covering all topics and Post-It boards in pdf format is also  available for download.

 

 

Public Safety topic Post-It boardGoing well

Service and Community

  • Involvement in schools and community / feeling safe and secure
  • Police officers generally amazing/friendly/willing to help
  • Willing to engage (presence at One Hillsborough event)
  • Richard Tichenor (Medal of Merit and Proclamation recipient)

Performance

  • Training and performance keep improving
  • Department is well led
  • Support for special needs citizens
  • Autism initiative

Diversity

  • Some more diversity visible in police force
  • Bias and mental health training

Needs improvement

Skills

  • Bias and mental health training: “Suicide-by-cop” should not be so easy
  • De-escalation skills are not great, especially for people with color.
  • Unclear whether PD training sessions are effective; no visible feedback to community
  • Lack of support and understanding for LGBTQ+
  • More focus on youth engagement/how to more actively deal with poor kids behavior

 

Communication

  • Police reporting incomplete, biased and flagrantly inaccurate
  • AG’s gag-order should not mean “no follow up ever” (shootings Chin/Sep‘21 and Mathis/Jan‘22)

 

Public Safety 

  • Crosswalk pedestrian safety
  • Enforcement of stop sign and tailgating laws
  • Speed limit enforcement in developments

Questions

  1. Do we have a civilian oversight board?  Do we need one?

Full report

The Full report covering all topics and Post-It boards in pdf format is also available for download.