I Promise to clean up our streets, neighborhoods and keep people safe.

The truth of the matter is, we all need to feel safe in our homes and our neighborhoods or walking to and from our cars when we go to work. 

That's the feedback that I have received from people all over Tacoma. From business owners to elderly people who've lived in Tacoma their entire lives, as I have.  

I've also heard from people that "the last thing we need to do is hire more officers". I have also heard that I "want to hire more of them" which sounds like we have so many officers and all I want to do is hire more.

For the record, TPD is understaffed and has been for quite a while. They're spending a ridiculously high amount of money on overtime (as high as $6.7M in overtime alone - TNT 2022) due to the fact that they do not have enough officers to cover their regular shifts. Officers can work as many as 80 hours a week.  I want Tacoma to have enough officers available to respond to calls that are coming in from people who need help in one capacity or another. I also do not want officers who are overworked, physically and mentally exhausted yet are expected to make split-second, possibly life-changing decisions, with little to no sleep.

I've gone to community meetings with TPD where they explained in great detail how they are flooded with 9-1-1 calls and have to prioritize them by urgency. Some people's calls taking several hours for a response when minutes matter.

Can you imagine calling 9-1-1 for help and having nobody show up to help you? It happens more than we'd all like to think. I've listened to heart-wrenching comments by citizens who were left to feel helpless while they were being burglarized and there were not enough officers to respond. They were left to fend for themselves.

One meeting in particular was at a Dome Top Neighborhood Meeting on East McKinley Avenue. This wasn't just one person's complaint, it was the complaint from a dozen or so community members who were fed up with feeling unheard and fearing for their lives.

I don't believe it's unreasonable to ask that we have enough officers on hand, on any given shift, to respond to what very well might be the worst day of someone's life.

We also need to reinstate the Tacoma Police Department's Gang Unit which was disbanded in 2021. I feel that we also need to provide resources for parents of troubled youth so that they may better understand how to deal with their kids who are getting caught up in illegal activities. Tacoma's Black Panther Party is doing everything they can to mentor Tacoma's children to keep them on the straight and narrow... yet the Tacoma Police Department refuses to meet with them to strategize. This makes no sense to me.  As Mayor, I would like to utilize the local Chapter of The Black Panthers to educate Officers and the local community on the needs of our kids who are in a struggle to find their identity. 

One of my biggest goals is to unify the people of Tacoma. To draw us all closer together and build a tight-knit community, once again. I know we have it in us to do so, and I offer the Leadership to help make that happen.