City Council Special Meeting

A quorum of the City Council being present, I call tonight's July 23rd special meeting of the Cambridge City Council to order. The first order of business is a roll call of members present. Interim Clerk Crane?

Councillor Al Zubi. Simmonds, Zubi, Anderson, Azeem, Cohen, Flaherty, Sieniewicz, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Tan, Watkins,

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance and pause for a moment of silence.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Per Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by Massachusetts General Court and approved by the Governor, the City is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge City Council. In addition to having members of the council participate remotely, we've set up Zoom teleconference for public comment. You can also view the meeting via the city's open meeting portal or on the city cable channel 22. www.cambridgema.gov public comment You can also email written comments for the record to the city clerk at cityclerk at cambridgema.gov We welcome your participation and you can sign up. Until public comment begins, please note that the City of Cambridge audio and video records this meeting and makes it available to the public for future viewing. In addition, third parties may also be audio and recording this meeting.

Public comment may be made in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 20G and City Council Rules 23D and 37. Once you finish speaking, the next speaker will be called. Individuals are not permitted to allocate the remainder of their time to other speakers. We ask that you state your name and address for the record Right now we have 46, 48 speakers who signed up. Each speaker per our rules will have two minutes each. And so we'll go ahead and start with public comment.

Our first speaker is Jalen Bernard, followed by Virginia Fisher. I don't see Jalen in the Zoom. We'll go to Virginia Fisher You have two minutes

My name is Virginia Fisher. I live on Clinton Street with my two children who are in the public schools. I love Cambridge. Thank you very much. So I'm here to encourage the council to really tackle the hard questions about the root causes of gun violence and what we can do to make sure this never happens again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

How can we help everyone find meaningful ways to contribute and know that they're valued? How can we allocate resources so everyone has access to high quality mental health care, so people in crisis have somewhere to turn for healing and care? How can get the guns off our streets Thank you. As we're holding the grief and the rightful anger of the people who have lost loved ones in our hearts, we owe it to each other to ask these questions. How can we take action so that no one else has to go through this? Thank you. I yield the rest of my time.

And I just want to remind folks there's no clapping. You can do silent things exactly, but please refrain from clapping.

Christina you're unmuted go ahead.

Thank you I'm Carisha Wasney-McClain and I live on Chauncey Street in Cambridge here to talk about public safety. I moved to Cambridge in April, so I am still a new resident. And today I would like to speak about some of my hopes for the city. At a most basic level, I hope that this is a place where vulnerable marginalized people are safe because I know that my safety can only be assured if everyone is cared for. To achieve that goal, I hope that my city councilors listen to their constituents not through listening devices which in any ordinary context promote fear but through honest and genuine communication. And so I hope you will distance yourselves from systems that make your constituents afraid to speak I hope too that you will listen to what people have already said in these public meetings and other forums where they have felt comfortable raising their concerns. Thank you to those who have listened so far and have rejected the use of more surveillance in our city. I hope that when faced with pain and suffering, you will be able to hold steady and look to a future without violence instead of one where it persists.

I understand the challenge of sitting with the pain of loss and I do not blame anyone who is hurting for wanting a quick fix. However, you all my city councilors have signed on to help us through tough times like these. In seeking and holding office, you have said that you are willing to shoulder our collective challenges and make decisions on our behalf. And right now you have big choices to make life and death choices You can choose quick fixes that can and do end in death, as in the case of 13-year old Adam Toledo shot and killed by police following a ShotSpotter alert in Chicago. Or you can choose solutions that bring life like housing, schools, food security, and healthcare even for the most risk averse that this should be an obvious choice. I hope the leaders of my new city will not be short-sighted and make decisions based in fear, I hope you'll seek to curb fear in this city I hope you will turn away from the myth of safety toward the truth. that safety can only be built in honest relationships with healthy people. It cannot be bought and it cannot be policed into existence.

You have to choose safety by- Thank you, your time has expired.

You can email the remainder of your comments. Our next speaker is Marilyn Frankenstein.

Marilyn Frankenstein, 40-year resident of Cambridge. Very sadly and very scarily two horrendous tragedies have recently struck our community as our counselors You have the very difficult role of needing to increase our safety while not taking a quick fix of a technology that does not work and has numerous negative consequences but seems to be doing something to help. Seems to. Rather than weaponize these tragic murders to take a quick fix, please focus our discussion and actions on proven ways to greatly diminish gun violence. of course we all want to prevent any violence in our communities the arguments are about what will accomplish that goal There's research on factors that prevent gun violence.

For example, a new study from the University of Chicago found that every 1% increase in eviction rates The census tract was associated with over two and a half more shootings. So let's focus our discussion about community safety on adequately funding what works, not on technological fixes that give the illusion of safety and caring but do not work. Let's also put resources into hearing from many more Cambridge residents, being creative at getting those who fear retaliation to participate in these discussions.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Isaac Yablo followed by Olivia Bee, then Malik A. Isaac, please go ahead. You have two minutes. Isaac has not joined us. We will go to Olivia B. Olivia has not join, we will go Malik A.

Hello, everyone. My name is Malik. I live and work in Cambridge. I have prepared notes. I didn't think the news would be here today And I know I'm being recorded right now on video and camera in two places actually, by Cambridge City Council and also via local news. And that's really a big reason why so many people most worried about ShotSpotter don't come here. and I'll start with my prepared remarks. We'll get to that, I feel disrespected unheard and as though aspects of my identity that I'm black or brown the color of my skin have been wielded against me. I feel compelled to speak because I feel compelled to speak as I have for a number of ShotSpotter-centered meetings because ShotSpots is garbage. It's trash, it does not work and my elected representatives turned to me after tragedy When ShotSpotter would by all expert and common sense accounts not have worked on the 4th of July when there are gunshots everywhere. Every firework, every firecracker is another gunshot. When they turned to me

All of us knowing it would not have worked to tell me it works. I know, I know I'm being disrespected and not listened to. It's no longer a thought in my mind, it is reality in front of me. Shots Water was purchased, I guess. The contract started with Cambridge Police Department in 2014 without any input from the city. It's been running for 12 years. There has been over two years of organizing against ShotSpotter showing overwhelming evidence it does not work in Cambridge and that's just Cambridge. Folks have mentioned Chicago, but folks will mention other cities where ShotSpotter contracts ended because ShotSpoter doesn't work. It does not work even in the most reactionary reactions to to ask us to adopt a technology that does not work makes zero sense. It won't prevent the future shooting of someone in Cambridge because it doesn't work!

Are we going to keep silencing undocumented members of our community because they speak through recordings, or are we actually going to listen to the people who live here?

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ben Amato followed by Katie Naples Mitchell. Ben?

So I think we kind of need to center this conversation about violence prevention and about community safety around what actually works, right? What actually solves these problems for real people. What we know does not work is increased policing, increased surveillance and increased incarceration. We know these things don't work. There have been numerous studies All across the country that show these things don't work. What we do know about these things is that they actually lead to worse outcomes for the communities that some of us here say that we're trying to help, right? We know that increased policing, increased surveillance, mass incarceration has disproportionately impacted black, indigenous and Latino people. Like we know these things. So why don't we start to talk about maybe something that does work, right?

Not ShotSpotter. but actually investing in communities. Investing in community programs that address the root of crime, right? The root of violence Thank you for watching! Thank you for joining us. Let's focus on things like Thank you for joining us. Let's look into mentoring and counseling programs, right?

Things that actually help the communities not made up things like shot spotter.

Thank you, Ben. Your time has expired. Please email the remainder. We are at speaker number nine, Katie Naples-Mitchell followed by Lois Markham then Gloria Korsman. Katie two minutes please go ahead Katie has not joined us. We will move to Lois Markham. Lois, you have two minutes please go ahead

My name is Lois Markham. I live at 316 Ridge Avenue in Cambridge and speaking about public safety and violence prevention. Like all of Cambridge, I am heartbroken about the death of Mr. Bautista on July 4th I agree that we as a community need to commit to strong anti-violence measures in Cambridge. But let's be clear, surveillance technology does not prevent violence. and accepting so-called free surveillance technology from the Federal Department of Homeland Security with a documented 65% false positive response rate most assuredly does more harm than good. in our neighborhoods. True commitment to public safety is not a quick fix, it takes human and financial resources over a sustained period of time

For effective and long-term public safety, we as a city need to commit resources to stable housing Food security, mental health care and enriching opportunities for all young people both in and out of school. This will take time and money but it is the only proven way to violence prevention. There are already community organizations in place to lead this work, they need to be funded and wholeheartedly supported I hope that you, our elected public officials, will have the vision to lead us to a long-term effective program of true public safety. Thank you

Thank you. Our next speaker is Gloria Korsman. Gloria, please unmute yourself if you have the floor. You have two minutes.

My name is Gloria and I live at 91 Montgomery Street and I'm here to speak about public safety. The killing of Xavier Bautista and the shooting on Memorial Drive have shaken us all, and we deserve real safety. Shot spotter is not real safety. It's reactive and unreliable. By the time a sensor goes off, if it does, the harm is already done and false alerts waste precious resources and undermine trust. We also have to face another truth. The alleged perpetrators in these tragedies were released from prison, and that shows a prison system that fails at rehabilitation More surveillance won't fix that. It just reacts after people have already been failed. Real safety means stable housing, food security, mental health care and opportunities for young and formerly incarcerated people and yet funding for violence interrupters in the city has been cut from $150,000 to $60,000.

I urge you to reject Schatz Butter and invest instead in proven community-based restorative programs that will actually keep us safe. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Carolyn Magid. Carolyn, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Please

Carolyn Magid, 71 Reed Street. I'm speaking for Our Revolution Cambridge. I live in North Cambridge just blocks from a fatal shooting on Clifton Street and gunfire on Sherman Street both last year. I and our Revolution Cambridge strongly support efforts to address gun and other violence in Cambridge, and strongly oppose any return to ShotSpot or any other surveillance technologies in Cambridge. After extensive discussions, the council voted to eliminate ShotSpotter and Cambridge for good reasons. Evidence shows it does not prevent violence. It doesn't even shorten response times. It does record conversations as well as gunshots and it does threaten civil rights and civil liberties. We need violence interrupters, city shelters and stable housing, jobs and other opportunities for young people, food and mental health programs. and much more.

We urge you to provide increased and consistent funding to community organizations and to city programs that are already doing this work

Thanks. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kavia Krosta, followed by Danny Palin, then Lee Ferris. Kavia, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello, my name is Kavya Krosta and I live on Putnam Avenue in Cambridge. I'm here to speak on gun violence prevention and public safety. Although the recent instances of gun violence and death are devastating for the community, I'd like to remind everyone that more surveillance and policing have historically never been and never will be the answer to stop violence. The cycle of violence in our communities and Black and Brown communities are stemmed from trauma caused by persistent systemic violence and lack of housing, health care, food access, and other human necessities. Increased surveillance and policing are only reactive solutions that worsen these problems, not solve them. If we truly want gun violence to end permanently in Cambridge our community members need to have their needs met by the city We have been asking for years for funding around stable housing, food security mental health care youth jobs crisis responses that do not rely on the police and instead have community members that look like us have the same experiences as us help us in moments of need

Arif Syed Faisal would have still been with us if we had invested in mental health crisis responses instead of the police. It is your responsibility as a city council of this city to meet the needs of your citizens, especially those historically and currently impacted by it. I deeply urge the City Council to not invest in policing, but in the people. Fund housing, fund healthcare, fund food access but do not fund surveillance systems that continue the cycles of violence in this city. Thank you.

Danny has not joined us, we will go to Lee Farris followed by Meg Stone then Alexandra Thorn. Lee you have the floor, you have two minutes please go ahead.

Thank you. I'm Lee Farris. I live in the port on Norfolk Street, just one block from where Xavier Bautista was murdered. I felt terrible for his family as I witnessed their pain and grief at the community meeting. I have attended far too many of those community meetings. I want Cambridge to use the best approaches to prevent violence and save lives. That's why I oppose the use of ShotSpotter The evidence shows ShotSpotter does not prevent gun violence or improve public safety. That's why the council voted to end it. They were responding to requests from affected community members In Cambridge, ShotSpotter has a 65% to 82% false positive rate. Every time ShotSpotter gives a false positive, police are deployed which wastes police time and can pose the risk of harmful interaction with residents.

The rate at which police clear cases involving gunshots did not improve in areas with shot spotter. Instead of surveillance technology, I'd like Cambridge to focus on proven solutions such as community violence interruption programs including HEART, well-funded mental health care and trauma support preventing evictions and ensuring stable housing and food, and funding for youth employment and support for reentry after incarceration or after conviction. I hope the council will work on providing solutions that actually work for neighborhoods like mine that are disproportionately experiencing gun violence. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Meg Stone followed by Alexandra Thorne, then Jessie Baer. Meg, two minutes.

Hi my name is Meg stone I live in area four I'm speaking as an individual not representing any organization Everyone who is directly impacted by the murder of Xavier Batista deserves care, support and proactive solutions from Cambridge City officials. The urgent call to action should be met with every resource that Cambridge has to offer. But I also want to name an important reality of this horrible crime that deserves more intention. According to statements made by DA Marion Ryan, The man who is charged with murdering Batista is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Recent ATF data, as well as data from focused studies on several major cities show that the majority of firearms used in violent crimes are stolen or otherwise illegally obtained.

Massachusetts is a nationally recognized leader in common sense gun safety laws, and those laws save lives. But effective policy only works when law enforcement does its part I hope to see the council, the city manager and all city leaders start asking hard questions of the Cambridge police. Why have they not done more to detect stolen and illegally obtained guns? What can we as a community do to make this a priority in the future? Rather than amplify the talking points of police unions, let's ask hard questions about how we can make our police more effective at removing illegal firearms from our communities. Those most affected by this tragedy deserve real solutions.

Thank you. We're going to go back to an earlier skip speaker, Jalen Bernard, followed by... Alexandra, Thorne. Jalen you have the floor. You have two minutes please go ahead. Jalyn if you can unmute yourself you have

Hey, hey, Madam Mayor and City Councilor. Thank you guys for having this meeting today. I really appreciate it. Two points. One point being, I think that we need to continue to support the violence prevention team and grow the violence I also think that they're going to need some more staff to help support such a strong and important movement in the city. And then the next piece about this is just using cameras for surveillance. I'm saying, I think it's a disproportionately high amount of homicides in Cambridge that... have victims of black people. And I think that we need to look at ways Using technology, whether it's ShotSpotter, whether its flock cameras,

any type of cameras to really get down to the solution here. I think that's what the solution would be and then I also think that Just in general, that people are not going to tell. So and I think that we've seen that, that and it would also be nice to see a specific privacy policy going that is clear that we are only using these cameras for violent crime such as Murder Rapesdale, someone being abducted and just figuring out locations in the city to put these cameras. Thank you guys for your time and I hope you have a good day. and again oh I'm sorry and then uh just thank you to you know Kwame Dance, the city manager, the council. I'm saying for getting this violence prevention team uh Marie Mateu as well so just thank those people who are leading these efforts in the city. Thank you

Thank you. Our next speaker is Alexandra Thorne. Alexandra, you have two minutes please go ahead

My name is Alexandra Thorne and I live in Somerville and spend significant time in Cambridge. Thank you, Mayor Siddiqui for holding this important meeting on public safety in Cambridge and for allowing me to speak. I am appalled by the murder of Xavier Bautista and was also profoundly disturbed by the mass shooting on Memorial Drive this May. It's incredibly troubling and as I've learned more about the two cases, I find myself asking the question, how could this have happened? Both cases involved perpetrators who had been recently released from prison. And in the case of the Memorial Drive shooter, we know that there have been clear signs of emotional disturbance. I keep coming back to the question of what it says about our punitive carceral system If people being released from prison quickly engage in violence, leaving aside the question of whether the carceral system in fact rehabilitates people at all, it's clear that our efforts to help former inmates reintegrate into society are falling short.

What we need in order to prevent violence Not to solve crimes after someone has been killed but to actually keep people alive is to invest in non-police systems for violence interruption and prevention systems based in the most affected communities and led by people with lived experience. To improve public safety, Cambridge must increase funding to the community safety department. Must expand the ability of care to respond to 911 calls. and especially must increase grants to help support community-run organizations like the Holistic Emergency Alert Response Team or HART. Surveillance doesn't prevent violence, community investment does. I yield my time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Jesse Baer, followed by Lawrence Adkins. Jesse, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi. I'm Jesse Baier, 10 Poplar Road. A little over a decade ago, my late grandmother started calling 911. Police would come and find nothing was wrong. That was when my family realized that she couldn't live on her own any longer. We understand that false alarms make us less safe, not more safe. That's why we actually make it a crime to intentionally make false calls to the police. There is reason we teach The Boy Who Cried Wolf to kids in school Response times went down in Chicago when they got rid of ShotSpotter. Circumstantial evidence, but given the low accuracy of the system it makes a lot of sense to me. In over a decade, there is no evidence that this technology saved a single life or helped solve a single crime in Cambridge. You know what I call that? A broken system. You now what I think? I think police departments like to spend money and city governments like to give them money to spend, even if it's on useless products.

Any company selling a product that is broken or shot spotted, anyone but the police would be bankrupt. Everyone in Cambridge should feel safe We deserve to be safe. Our community deserves real solutions and actual safety, not broken systems cynically sold as answers to a grieving community. If this broken system had been in place it would not have saved Xavier Batista's life. but if we bring it back, it may well cost lives. If you bring back this fraud and someone bleeds out while EMS is distracted answering false alarms that's on you If you bring back this fake solution and someone dies because a car backfired and cops come in guns drawn, that's on you. I hope you sit with that before taking rash action tonight.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Lawrence Adkins. Mr. Adkins, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Thank you My name is Lawrence Atkins I am a legacy Canterbridgean I must be slipping in what I've been reading in the paper, particularly with the shortstopper. I thought it was a response time of saving someone's life. Not to stop a shooting. I think that's our first responsibility. that in the event thereof, our Claim Beach Police Department should be all over it. Unfortunately, that device didn't have the opportunity to be active because of the actions of this council. I know that night when this council decided to do that, I heard one councillor state perhaps we should do something that will replace the shortstopper before we cancelled it. Hence This council follow its own lead when it is not the expert in what they're talking about.

Again, I want to make another observation as of today. The interim police commissioner who should be here. That is her department. Madam Mayor, Mr. City Manager it is a separate entity and neither one of you two individuals run or have command over that department We need to make sure things are done unifiedly with everybody. We need the make sure that Cantabrigians are involved You've each have had meetings segregatedly, and this is the first time that you're doing an all-out effort. It should have been instantaneous across the city for every Canterburyian to hear everything at one time. So it wouldn't be secondhand. We need to stop that instantly. You want results? Get every community involved and have nothing in one single neighborhood. Have it throughout the entire city of Cambridge.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachelle A. We're at speaker number 20 of 48. Rachelle, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, I'm Rochelle. I'm a resident of Cambridge and mother to children who go to the Cambridge public school systems The recent violence and deaths of Xavier Bautista is tragic. However, I'm going to ask to join my fellow speakers today in requesting that the city not double down, not adopt or increase surveillance technology such as ShotSpotter which do not make people safer. It is reactive technology, it is rife with a lot of problems, it does not addressing the issues that are Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for joining us.

Other methods to control gun violence, to create safer communities, to address actual needs in the community such as mental health, security, housing, etc. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Mason Shepherd, followed by Sophie Gillard, then Bea Feinberg. Mason, you have two minutes.

Hi, everyone. My name is Mason Shepherd. I am an organizer with the MIT Graduate Students Union but I'm here personally in my capacity today as a resident of Cambridge and I'm sure like many residents of Cambridge, including many students agree there is no vision of Public Safety in Cambridge or anywhere that includes mass surveillance of our communities. Mass surveillance that we know is data that and then stored in data centers being proposed in communities miles around in all directions, much poorer and more rural than our own who are opposed to those.

But while that may be new, we do know that attempted mass surveillance of our own poor and disenfranchised communities is nothing new. And it is in diametric opposition to a vision of public safety that invests those resources rather in preventative measures that uplift communities and enfranchise them in every sense. And that is why we must... Thank you. Our next speaker is Sophie Gillard, followed by Bea Feinberg, then Tony Clark. Sophie?

Hi, my name is Sophie Gillard. I am a resident of Roseland Street in Porter Square. The death of Xavier Batista is a horrible tragedy. As our city grieves him, Cambridge needs to invest in solutions that actually prevent violence. Keeping ShotSpotter is not one of those solutions. For months, we've heard from advocates from the Black Response, the ACLU, and others who shared the stats on how inaccurate ShotSpotter is. And also how little transparency ShotSpoter offers into how they use the data that they collect. It's clear that ShotSpotter is not good at deterring crime. ShotSpodder is good at surveilling us, and in particular spying on our low-income and black and brown neighbors. Do not bring ShotSpoder back. Do not engage these reactionary politics. Invest in some of the data-backed violence prevention measures that others have mentioned here today.

I want to thank Councilor Al Zubi, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councilors Nolan, Mayor Siddiqui and Councilor McGovern for their courage on this issue. And to the remaining counselors, I want to say that we want solutions that stop violence from happening in the first place not faulty tech that doesn't know the difference between a gunshot and a firecracker Thank you.

I think our next speaker is Bea Feinberg, followed by Tony Clark, then Luke Acton. Bea, two minutes.

Hey folks, Bea Feienberg, Columbia Street. But this feels like an easy way out to show the public, the city is doing something about violence. It feels like theater either kowtowing to a very few loud unreasonable voices or worse appears like using Xavier's tragic death as an opportunity to skirt the overwhelming consensus among Cantabrigians. that they want ShotSpotter out. Because we all know from listening to the scores and scores of analysis that ShotSpoter is ineffective, and has never saved a life. We know from scores and scores of testimony from folks, please note several were truncated by our counselor silencing them last meeting who feel less safe knowing a surveillance system could wreak life-changing violence by inviting a response that could escalate violence or if surveillance data got in the hands of ICE. If it truly cares about preventing violence, it would stop its attention on this thoroughly confirmed as inaccurate not preventative and potentially really dangerous technology Thank you so much for joining us.

To listen to Cantabrigians and finally remove ShotSpotter was a step toward being a body of, and for the people. Council voted to end the use of faulty and dangerous ShotSpodder after hearing scores of testimony from people in the very neighborhoods most heavily surveilled. As someone in one who listened to black and brown neighbors from those areas put themselves in vulnerable positions to speak out, I find the resolutions whereas clause unfair if not manipulative that expresses that those in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence may not have been sufficiently heard and considered before the technology was removed. To placate a vocal few as reactionary, absolutely nothing has changed about the net harm of ShotSpotter. and it being in place would not have brought Xavier back to life or prevented this strategy. Please invest in actual ways to keep us safe, doing so while ShotSpotter emplaces an it and put a stop to 2026-136 and keep ShotSpoter out of our city. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tony Clark. Tony, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, my name is Tony Clarke. I wanted to say I knew Xavier and hope Xavier for that matter Thank you, Madam Mayor and Honorable Committee. My father was killed when I was four years old. My sister hadn't yet celebrated her first birthday. A mother became a widow shy of the age of 30. That murder happened across the bridge, a short drive from where this most recent act of cowardice took place. In that moment our three lives were forever changed and decades later I still carry the void that was violently taken from me. unfortunately these acts are not just personal for me many of us carry this in August of 94 I had a gun placed to the back of my head on Columbia Street at a basketball court weeks before I was set to go to college I was only spared because one of the men with the gun may have known me. He told the shooter to stand down. The story made the news, I was interviewed and I was thankfully granted a chance to see another day to meet and raise my son who today I have to negotiate a life with about how he too could be subjected to the same senseless violence.

This community often prides itself on its innovation. There is a social justice unit. How can that apparatus work with schools and organizations to address the root causes of violence? because if you think your city being a desirable place to live means you've solved this, you've missed the mark. Data is great but the data means nothing to those who live in fear I can't stand here today and tell you, I saw a gun on the Green Turtle bus when I caught it in 7th grade In front of Izzy's at 12. I know where guns were being stashed at high school parties As a city that prides itself on research, examine the work being done in Berkeley, Shaker Heights and St. Paul around gun violence prevention. As Xavier's son and family along with other families of unsolved murders in this city know even a safe zip code Even with the safe tip code, we remain unsafe mentally, emotionally and psychologically. I want to thank you for your time and commitment to this issue.

Thank you, our next speaker is Luke Acton followed by Paul Pierce then Siobhan McDonough. We're at speaker number 25. Luke please go ahead, you have two minutes.

Hello my name's Luke I'm a Cambridge resident and I'd like to speak on something that was written in a Boston Globe op-ed by Councilors Simmons and Flaherty. You said that city councils elevated ideology over facts, and with that mind, I've gathered some data found by independent researchers from studying the technology. So some other people have mentioned Chicago and the data is really stark in that regard A study published last month found that call to dispatch time and call to on-scene time increased significantly following ShotSpot's implementation, and the probability of arrest decreased by 9%. Additionally, an analysis of public records in Chicago where ShotSpotter has now been deactivated since 2024 found that neighborhoods that had ShotSpoter now had an average response time improvement of 4.2 minutes after its removal along with an 11.3% decrease in violent crime and 32.1% decrease in homicide.

Similarly, an analysis of Detroit found that while violent crime reduced by 6.5% with shot spotters installation, nonviolent crime rose 8.5% with no significant change in case clearance rate Another study in 2013 found the same thing in Brockton. There was no increase in case closures after ShotSpotter was implemented. Another 2021 analysis published in The Journal of Urban Health found zero relationship between ShotSpots implementation and the rates of firearm homicides, murder arrests or weapon arrests for large metro counties across America. Finally an investigation by the Associated Press found that ShotSpotter had numerous flaws like missing live gunfire right under the microphone and while everything from fireworks to dumpsters trigger false positives. ShotSpot is a proprietary technology that is secretive about the actual inner workings of the software, making oversight incredibly difficult.

As a result of this overwhelming inefficiency, cities across the country from San Antonio to Charlotte to Fall River right here in Massachusetts have canceled their contract with ShotSpotter.

Thank you, Luke. Your time has expired. Please email us the remainder. For anyone whose time runs out, please email us at citycouncilatcambridgema.gov. Our next speaker, Paul Pierce has not joined. We're going to go back to earlier skipped speaker Katie Naples-Mitchell. Katie two minutes please go ahead

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Katie Naples Mitchell. I'm Justice Policy Counsel with the ACLU of Massachusetts, and I've been a Cambridge resident for the better part of a decade. After a tragic killing, it is natural and critical to search for solutions to prevent violence and save lives. I hope the Council will focus on what is proven to reduce and prevent violence. To that end, I'm here to encourage the Council to reject the policy order asking the City to immediately reinstate ShotSpotter and support the requests in every policy order filed today for a comprehensive evaluation of violence prevention and intervention efforts. Gun violence is an equity issue. It disproportionately harms people and communities of color in Cambridge and across the country, and black residents in particular. And we've heard about the personal trauma that creates generational harm for our neighbors. Safety is not negotiable.

The Council should target resources toward the people and neighborhoods that need the most investment, but in the manner that will be most effective at achieving the goal of safe and thriving communities for all. ShotSpotter does not deliver on public safety goals and has not been shown to save lives. You've heard already that ShotSpoter does not reduce gun violence, prevent gun crime or help police solve more shootings or murders. Even in the isolated studies that find ShotSpotter may get victims to a hospital faster, there is no evidence that ShotSpots reduces mortality. In other words, it saves lives. So where should the Council spend its resources? In proven programs that prevent and deter violence. Community Violence Intervention, stable funded mental health care and trauma support robust funding for youth employment Cambridge already funds some of these programs, but in small dollar amounts and in single year grant cycles. These programs deserve more funding, technical assistance to define metrics for success, and longer timetables.

Particularly in urgent moments of grief, I hope the Council will resist the impulse to reach for something that seems supportive of community needs but ultimately doesn't deliver results. Thank you and I've submitted more detailed written comments with the research I mentioned.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Siobhan McDonough followed by Glenna Wyman, then Mark Eisenberg. Sioban, you have two minutes.

Thank you. I'm Siobhan McDonough. I live on Ellery Street. I am a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the United Auto Workers. from every perspective on the issue is united in a real community grief and a real desire for public safety. And I think that's genuine from really across the spectrum here, Thank you very much. To everyone in our community to address root causes here and not just add security theater. We know ShoutSpotter actually makes police less responsive to serious emergencies, not more. We know it increases policing and surveillance of the most vulnerable communities.

On the other hand, we also know what actually makes our community safer as you've heard from folks tonight over and over Housing, Physical and Mental Health Care, Transportation, Jobs, and a Real Voice in the Political Process. Please don't take the low-hanging rotten fruit offered to you all by surveillance contractors Thank you. Our next speaker is Glenna Wyman, followed by Mark Eisenberg. Glenna?

Hi, I'm Glenna Wyman, 25A Street East Cambridge. I want to say at the outset so I don't run out of time, I urge the majority on the council to oppose policy order request number 136. It says Shots Water remain in operation. I thought it had been disabled, but if it wasn't... Thank you. So, you know, there are some questions whether it was off or on. Whether it's true that the owners of ShotSpotter, the operator...

actually disabled it from working during fireworks season July 4th. and when the shooting actually even occurred. I would also just reiterate what other people have said we need youth workers, opportunity programs, and I support the other two policy orders that would provide support to solutions that don't involve surveillance. There's a late order, I also would urge folks to oppose that more surveillance by camera is not Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mark Eisenberg. Mark, you have two minutes please go ahead

I thank the City Council for the opportunity to speak tonight. I live on Concord Avenue and I'm a primary care physician. I've lost many patients to guns and interpersonal violence. I have mourned alongside family members, and I grieve for Mr. Bautista's family. I'm not going to repeat what everyone else has been saying tonight but as a public health expert I agree that it's been shown that ShotSpotter is not an effective intervention, and I think the City Council should not readopt it. And as mentioned earlier, we should use our resources to spend... Thank you very much. We shouldn't use the grief of the death of Mr. Bautista to reinstate the ShotSpotter program. Thanks for your attention.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Vai or Vy Sinei. Pardon me if I'm mispronouncing your name. Vi or V, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead. Hi, can you hear me? Yes we can.

Okay, it's VC May. I'd like to start off by thanking many of the speakers before me who spoke of community intervention and basic needs needing to be met. I think many of us are on the same page but perhaps different paragraphs. I'm a longtime resident and community member. ShotSpotter isn't the solution to safety, as many people stated. Shotspotter works for surveillance and police interests but not to prevent assist or end gun violence so why are we trying to solve a problem with a failed solution but what we do need is more community funding of local community-based grassroots Neighbor to neighbor organizations such as Cambridge Heart, The Black Response and Patriot Truth a mental health wellness care service. expand and fund these types of programs that are actually in service as of now, and in the neighborhoods of the folks most likely to experience gun violence.

People need trauma response teams, basic needs met and programming that prevent, assist and possibly end gun violence not creating an Orwellian state. Cambridge has already used policing as a tool for community intervention and it ended with gun violence, shooting, and the murder of 20-year-old Syed Qazeel. I hope I'm saying it right. on January 4th, 2023. So let's try to do something better and Use the comments of the folks who commented earlier and folks who are going to comment after me as a direction for what we need next as safety within our community.

V, sorry we lost you for a moment there. We've stopped the time hold on one second try to get you back in. V please go ahead you still have 10 seconds remaining

Um, after I think I'm done. I think i stated everything that's stated um I'm not sure where there was a

Thank you. Our next speaker is Jeremy Fleischhacker. Jeremy, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, yes. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. All right.

Hi, I'm Jeremy. I'm a resident in Central Square. The City Council and Government to continue their commitment to reducing the undue and unnecessary surveillance of residents. and in particular to decide against any restoration of ShotSpotter within Cambridge. I think there were important reasons that led to the original decision to shut down ShotSpoter, and the tragic murder of Xavier Bautista does not change the real concerns residents have with police use of this technology. The council has already seen the testimony and reviewed the evidence that led to the suspension in the first place. The bottom line is that where technologies like ShotSpotter have been deployed, public safety has not improved and shootings have not been reduced. ShotSpotter is not accurate. Others have mentioned the accuracy in Cambridge, in New York, you know, NYPD can't even corroborate 20% of detections.

and deployment in neighborhoods that disproportionately experience violence leads to targeting and overpolicing of the very victims of that violence. Nor does it lead to faster police response times, and it's not foolproof in being able to detect every gunshot. ShotSpotter is unreliable at best and counterproductive at worst for public safety, and more funding for surveillance and police will not provide the safety that our neighborhoods deserved. Safety comes from secure access to housing, food, healthcare and jobs. But Cambridge has over recent years systematically defunded non-police programs and other essential supports like shelters. It is time we reinvest in our neighbors, not our police and surveillance corporations like sound thinking. In the wake of this tragedy, we are asking the wrong questions about public safety as others have made clear we need to focus the conversation on proven community-based methods.

I urge councilors to decide against the motion to reactivate ShotSpotter and defund community programs for housing, jobs, food, healthcare, and violence prevention that desperately need the funding instead. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Amanda R., followed by Jacob Brown, then Akuna Anna. Amanda, you have the floor. You have two minutes.

Good evening. My name's Amanda. I currently work in Cambridge, and I'm here to talk about community safety and violence prevention. If we truly want safer communities, we have to invest in things that stop the violence before it starts. Youth Programs, Mental Health Services, Housing Stability, Trauma Recovery, Substance Use Treatment, Violence Interrupters and Community Organizations that have earned people's trust. If you defund grassroots organizations that support local community members Your Defunding Violence Prevention. As a former Cambridge Heart Responder, I saw firsthand that many crises were not rooted in lack of policing They were rooted in the lack of support. People needed someone who would listen without judgment, help them through their hardest moments, connect them to resources and remind them that they are not alone I saw how a conversation, trust and the right support could deescalate a crisis before it became something worse. Violence prevention begins with relationships not just responses

I know the power of that personally. In 2017, I had to talk a man down from attempting to shoot me in the head while our daughter slept in the next room. It wasn't technology that deescalated that moment. It was conversation. Fear of retaliation, fear of being criminalized and lack of trust keeps many people from calling police. Any public safety strategy must acknowledge that reality. Technology may help us respond after violence occurs, but it cannot mentor a young person, heal trauma, strengthen a family or earn the trust of a community. If our goal is to save lives then we must invest in what prevents violence in the first place That's the people, relationships, community-based solutions that stop violence before it starts. Not just the tools that tell us where it has happened. Thank you

Thank you. Our next speaker is Jacob Brown followed by Akuna Ena, then Quinton Zondervan Jacob has not joined us. We will go to Akuna Ena. Akuna, you have the floor. Two minutes.

Hello. Hi. Um, it still says 12. Oh sorry okay thank you um so my name is Akuna Ene I'm a Cambridge resident. I'm also a librarian though i am a librarian in In the Boston area, I've been a librarian for about 20 years. And I feel in black and brown communities and have Thank you so much for joining us. Way more from everything to like applying for an apartment, to getting a bank account, to um getting a coupon. You know all of our information has to be up for offer And it hasn't and doesn't make people feel safe.

And it has not engendered trust in general among folks in my community, and ShotSpotter seems like that is part of the same thing Why do we have to give up privacy and give up autonomy in order to be safe Why is that not the answer to questions of domestic violence? You know, why is there no shot spotter or why are we not suggesting shot spotters to be in the homes where there's domestic violence in the suburbs where there are guns, where people are more likely to maybe kill themselves via homicide or suicide. We're not asking for that. Thank you so much for joining us.

What people are upset about is the not being cared for and not being treated as human and listened to. Surveillance doesn't really address that need that our black and brown communities have.

Thank you. Akuna, please email us the remainder. Our next speaker, we are at speaker number 35, former city councilor Quinton Zondervan. Quinton, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Thank you Madam Mayor, City Councilors. It is always a pleasure to be with you despite the sad circumstances and my heartfelt condolences Go out to the family of Sylvia Bautista. I was very saddened to hear about this most recent tragedy involving gun violence in Cambridge And I'm also saddened by the fact that the conversation is once again about surveillance technology instead of how we can prevent these tragedies from occurring in the first place. During much of my time on the city council, I was the chair of public safety committee and we would have many hearings on ShotSpot or why it didn't work. Why did you get rid of it? And I was so heartened

I hope that you stick with that decision. I also hope and I strongly urge you to continue and increase funding for community-based organizations that are actually working on preventing violence. During my time on the City Council, I was also Thank you for joining us today. and other organizations that are working in the community because that's where the real work is being done. That's where you will see the real results, not in technology.

Thank you so much and wishing you all the best always.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Murphy followed by Jacqueline Adams, then Andrew Feldman. Chris you have the floor, you have two minutes please go ahead

Thank you. My name is Chris Murphy, I live on Royal Ave and firstly I'd like to extend my condolences to the family of Xavier Bautista. It's disappointing that ShotSpotter is back on the table None of the arguments have changed since the last time we were discussing this. The shooting took place on July 4th, which is a difficult time for gunshot detection due to the fireworks. I'm not really going to say anything different than people haven't already said but just to reiterate It's not clear that ShotSpotter would have helped in this instance. Even if it wasn't July 4th, it's inaccurate at the best of times, routinely misses gunshots and also generates false alerts regularly Shotspotter violates civil rights. As far as I'm aware, Cambridge Police Department hasn't made any proposals to address these well-known and well discussed concerns.

and as a lot of people again have already said, ShotSpotter can only tell you that a shot took place. It's not actually preventing shootings from happening and additionally a study in Chicago found the response times were actually faster after ShotSpotter was removed. And then as many people have said already before, the solution to gun violence is not permanent surveillance What are already overly policed communities. We need social responses to social problems, we need real alternatives for people that are at risk of both perpetuating violence and Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jacqueline Adams. Jacqueline, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor and City Councilors. Thankful that we take this time. My name is Jacqueline Adams. I live at 28 Newtown Court. I want to address the gun violence issue, and I wrote something along with some of my fellow residents. Excuse my voice. Newtown Court in Washington, our population consists of 400 plus households with 100 plus additional residences that are in this area as well. We have experienced gun violence as well as different criminal activities. We are a vulnerable population, and it seems our geographical location makes us an easy target to bring criminal activity into our development in surrounding areas. We have become numb as well as fearful as we watch the elimination of technological methods and police ability to respond to serious occurrences in our neighborhood. Despite statistics stating shot spotters are ineffective, we experienced firsthand how the use of this system saved a life.

Although the suggestions of how to prevent violence should be addressed and at some point in time be implemented, the present time and situations warrant a possible solution until such time these necessary programs are put into place. Despite statistics stating that they are ineffective, we have experienced I'm sorry about that. Despite stating shot spot is ineffective, we have experienced this by a life being saved. It is beyond my comprehension as to why a system was removed before an alternative solution was set into place. As I stated earlier and must reiterate, we are a vulnerable population and are grateful to CPD, Cambridge Housing Authority for listening, hearing our concerns. The city has an obligation to not just talk the talk but walk the walk with us and find a way to reinstall technology until such time is made available. Thank you very much for your time Thank you.

Our next speaker is Andrew Feldman, followed by David Burkinski then Richard Solomon. Andrew, you have two minutes please go ahead Andrew, if you can unmute yourself.

Yes good evening City Council my name is Andrew Feldman I'm commenting on gun violence prevention in Cambridge where i'm a resident The murder of Xavier Bautista on July 4th and the shooting on Memorial Drive in May are devastating to our community. In response to these and other incidents, of course community members have an understandable and legitimate desire to feel safe in their homes and communities. But in what I believe is an unfortunate turn, this has revived calls for Cambridge City Council to bring back the ShotSpotter acoustic sensor system. And I strongly oppose bringing back ShotSpoter. The question I would like to ask is Can we address the problem of gun violence at its root? When I file my tax return, I would like that money to go towards proven community-based nonpolice solutions for preventing violence and not towards using police and surveillance as a reactive response.

A great start would be to increase funding for Cambridge Heart, which has been mentioned previously and which is an already active network of crisis responders who operate outside of the Cambridge Police System and are able to respond to a range of issues in the community. And another great option would be for the Cambridge Community Safety Department to restore grant funding for violence interrupters. Violence Interruptors are community members who have connections and life experience to intervene and help stop cycles of violence as they are occurring Funding for the Promising Violence Interrupter program in Cambridge was recently cut by 60%. So why does ShotSpotter continue to be discussed when promising solutions such as Cambridge Heart and violence interrupters are underfunded? Helping people meet their needs would also be a great place to start. Stable housing, safe schools, job opportunities, mental health care, food security and other essential needs which when not met exacerbate violence in Cambridge

While Cambridge City Council is under pressure to keep ShotSpotter in the conversation, we have to keep in mind that ShotSpoter is unreliable and does not prevent violence.

Thank you. Our next speaker is David Berkinski followed by Richard Solomon. David, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello, my name is David. I work here in Cambridge. Also a community organizer. Similar to everyone else commenting today, I want to see solutions that make Cambridge safer That said, increased policing is not the solution. Increased surveillance is not a solution and reinstating ShotSpotter is not solution. These are band-aids that do not actually address the root causes of crime and violence In fact, they often exacerbate the problem and at the same time take away necessary resources from programs like Cambridge Heart and Violence Interrupters. This is a challenge that the city councilors must take on. It's time to start thinking more creatively about how we can address violence before it happens. We needed to support people so their needs are met. It would be amazing to see funding be shifted away from the police and towards more funding for after school programs, job opportunities, health

healthcare including mental health care, substance usage treatment and many other places. It's very well known that when people do not have financial stability food security housing stability or any other basic needs They are more likely to resort to crime and violence. The solutions the City Council should consider have to address these basic needs of people here in Cambridge. More policing and surveillance will never address these issues. Again, they are oversimplified solutions. I urge the city councilors to not reinstitute ShotSpot or listening devices and more generally to move towards solutions that invest in the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is speaker number 40, Richard Solomon. Richard, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi there, I live a block away from the Memorial Drive shooting in May. I'm on Kanad Street I'm a five-minute bike from the place where Mr. Bautista was shot. I also live stone's throw from a shot spotter itself, and over the past few years it has given me a lot of anxiety It's disappointing that this is back on the table as an option that the council is discussing. It has a horrible false positive rate, invites police into my area. I think they behave with impunity. I see them as one of the principal threats to our safety and civil liberties in this city. with impunity, I don't think we should be inviting them into my neighborhood of Cambridgeport and Riverside. I think the false alarms Make people less safe. I want to thank Mark McGovern, especially and Symbol Siddiqui for voting against ShopSpotter. I ask you to stand firm on this.

I ask Councilors Denise Simmons and Tim Flaherty to reconsider your positions. I don't think it's appropriate for Cambridge to be taking DHS funding and essentially aiding ICE. We should be focusing city resources and attention on social housing, on Cambridge Heart as As my colleagues mentioned on violence interrupters, we should be focusing our attention on getting all the delayed infrastructure updates back on track. I mean, they've been working on the road next to my house for three years. I think they're really far behind. I'd also like to mention that, you know, focusing on recent incidents like the tragedy with Mr. Bautista can lead us to forget the broader fact that we live in a historically safe time Massachusetts has a record low crime rate. Cambridge's crime rate has trended down for decades. Giving money or accepting money for shot spotters is not a good use of our resources. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Andrew Kim, followed by Ellis Washington. Andrew, you have two minutes.

Hello, my name is Andrew Kim. I live near Russell Field by Ill Wife Station and I'm here to talk about polyseudor number one. I'm a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a deacon at Old Cambridge Baptist Church. It's that second role I would like to speak as OCBC is a diverse congregation with several immigrant members, including one of our pastors. We are a church that embraces the global community. A church that prays for green card statuses and a church has protocols for when ice shows up to our building The ShotSpotter surveillance system through its parent company's cooperation with DHS is a direct threat to members of my church. This is not to say that the people who have spoken for the port are wrong, they are in fact right They are right that every death from gun violence in this city is a grave tragedy. They are right that any amount of gun violence is a major concern, and they're right that they aren't being heard by this system.

This public comment system is difficult to participate in, and since it requires residents' full name and address can be threatening to many of them Thank you very much. would not aid in decreasing gun violence and would, in fact, degrade the quality of our emergency response system. The people of the port deserve a system that is truly effective, that won't degrade emergency response quality, and that won t threaten the lives of their neighbors. to simply fall back on the flawed and dangerous system of ShotSpotter would be a dereliction of care and due diligence on the part of this council. The residents of the port deserve a real solution to gun violence, not simply the system that was there before. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ellis Washington, followed by Alita Castillo. Ellis, you have two minutes.

Good evening, Councilors. My name is Reverend Ellis Washington, Senior Pastor of the St. Paul AME Church 37 Bishop Allen Drive here in Cambridge. And I do come before you to ask that you reconsider the decision to remove ShotSpotter from our city. I do want to be honest about where I start because I do carry real concerns about civil liberties and I carry concerns about over-policing, particularly in communities of color who have too often borne the weight Thank you very much. but have also come to consider that possibly reinstating this technology when done carefully can help resolve crimes that would otherwise go unsolved. They may help prevent others, when shots are fired Every second, it's critical. It matters.

And so that if there is technology that may help first responders locate a victim secure scene recover evidence or identify the person responsible Thank you very much. But at the same time, I want to be equally clear. ShotSpotter does not address the underlying causes of gun violence and there's no detection system that's ever going to do that So Cambridge must continue and invest, and invest deeply in our young people in community-based intervention. In mental health services, in housing and education, economic opportunity. So technology can help respond to violence but only that type of investment will help us to prevent it at its root. And so I'm saying don't take my word for it.

I'm asking that Cambridge base the decision on our own local evidence, not Chicago evidence and the number of alerts generated, the confirmed incidents, the victims located The evidence recovered, the arrests made and just as importantly, the incidents in which no one called 911 at all.

Thank you. Your time is expired. Thank you. Please email the remainder Our next speaker is Alita Castillo It looks like Alita has not joined us. We're going to go on to Lyndon Jenkins, followed by Ed Henley. Lyndon has not joined. We will go to Ed Henley. Mr. Henley, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

My name is Ed Henley. I live at 237 Franklin Street Senior Housing. I speak for the personal views that I have at this point in time with regards to safe policing Cambridge works hard at appropriate and safe policing. It is always a work in progress, and I believe that our police should have every tool in the toolbox that helps in A police department is fantastic and always able to be counted on at our senior housing at Manning Apartments. We thank you so much for that. Grief is difficult though and never ending as every senior knows. And I personally know at least one person associated with Xavier, and my heart goes out to her and his family. I also know Xavier Louis-Jacques, his mom and family as well. And several life loving fellow students of my own children who never made it to adulthood.

These are to this day unfathomable and incomprehensible, and the weight of grief is unending. At the same time subsequent to Xavier Batiste's killing at least three killings have occurred in the weeks following the loss of Xavier and these binational policing organizations that seem to be incapable of engaging in safe policing practices, those that we know in Cambridge. I believe that when looking into how ShotSpotter actually works, it can be ineffective and also prone to be used in a way uncontrolled by law. Until management of that national organization changes, we should forego the use of shorts water until such time as safe policing practices can be counted. in that organization, at which time we can review things here, its use including its effectiveness and whether it can be maintained under local control or not.

I thank you City Council for thinking and addressing these issues, and my heartfelt condolences to the Bautista family.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Cathy Watkins followed by Neil Miller, then Suzanne Blier. Cathy, you have the floor. You have two minutes.

Hi, my name is Kathy Watkins. I live at Fawcett Street in Cambridge. I'm urging the City Council to continue to not use spot chatter and to end all surveillance. ShotSpotter seems like an easy fix, but as we've heard over and over and has been proved it does not work. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for watching. But there are some things we can do, and I won't enumerate them because we've heard over and over from some neighbors things that we can

And I also just want to say, I hope that we can really demand more strongly than ever of our state and federal officials that our prison system actually helps people. putting someone in prison is punishment enough they should not be punished by having their rights taken away from them let's help people, let's rehabilitate them There are models all over the world where they actually help people and I think that would go a long way as well as many of the other Thank you so much. And I just want to extend my deepest sympathy to the victims of gun violence in our city.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Neil Miller, followed by Suzanne Blier. Neil, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you. Neil Miller 425 Mass Ave. We lost a neighbor just blocks from Where I live in Central Square, and as a community we grieve for someone who served this community and was raising his family here. And it's incumbent on us to try to recommit doing everything we can to save lives and make this community safe. because no tool is, and technology cannot prevent shootings. To do that we need to invest in housing education and health care which are in order to solve for the root causes of gun violence That being said, ShotSpotter is one tool. that allows first responders to come when guns are fired.

In Xavier's case and many others, there was no 911 call when a gun is fired and I believe that we should heed the calls of community members that are most impacted by gun violence not leave them without solutions, do the hard work to find ways to respond when shootings occur Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Suzanne Blier. Suzanne, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead. Suzanne, if you can unmute yourself. You have the floor. Suzanne? Suzanne? Okay, Suzanne is unable to unmute at this time. We're going to go back to an earlier skipped speaker, Jacob Brown. Jacob, you have the floor, you

Hi, my name is Jacob Brown. I live on Magazine here in Cambridge. I'm here because I'm really heartbroken and horrified by the murder of Xavier Bautista because I think our city deserves solutions to keep us safe. Yeah, I think first of all We need to look at the forms of public safety that are currently on Both this murder and the shooting on Memorial Drive, I see that there are two shooters who had been recently released from prison. And that shows to me that there's a serious gap in our ability to help formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into society Additionally, programs like ShotSpotter even in cases where gunshots have been fired only do their work after harm has been done. They work after the fact and their inaccuracies mean that they're capable of creating false alarms and escalating rather than preventing situations I live in a place that has a shot spotter microphone literally one building over. It's in the backyard, it's listening to me when I take out the trash. I know that it hasn't made me feel more safe

because I see Chicago's experience with the technology, not just with the fact that 9-1-1 response times have gotten four minutes faster after canceling the contract but also I see that The case where police shot at a teenage boy when they responded to a shot spotter alert that was likely caused because of fireworks. I know that like, a man was falsely charged with murder because of a shot-spotter alert when it didn't collect correct evidence and I know ShotSpotter isn't helping safety because it does nothing to prevent violence in the first place. There's an extensive track record of community organizations and violence interrupters doing vital work and actually bring down the rates of violence in cities around the country. Cambridge has orgs like that. The community safety department and its care team has proven so strong in responding to emergencies, and CARE was able to resolve 96% of its calls without a police response last year. Furthermore, we have organizations like Heart that are doing critical work. However, currently we've seen that CSD's grant funding has been cut by more than half

I think Cambridge needs to have budget priorities that invest in the solutions that have been proven

Suzanne is still unable to unmute. There were two more people that were skipped earlier, Isaac Yablo and Lyndon Jenkins. Madam Mayor, that is all that we're signed up to speak.

Thank you, Naomi. Thank you. We're here today to receive updates on the City of Cambridge's current planned and recommended public safety and violence prevention work. As we know, on July 4th, Xavier Batista announced A city employee with the Department of Public Works was shot and killed in a senseless act of gun violence that has deeply affected our community. We continue to mourn this loss. Since then the city has been working to support his loved ones, we've convened a community meeting and have continued to meet with and hear from community members

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Gun violence does disproportionately impact our community members and that the city must play a role in addressing this violence with the same principles and values we apply to other priorities. And that means being data-driven, engaging the community and developing and articulating strategic and collaborative plans We know addressing gun violence requires approaching the root causes, not just after it happens. And we must coordinate and collaborate across stakeholders, across the city, and across the region. We must center victims and support them. And we must ask ourselves what tools are needed, and where?

Making our community safer requires sustained commitment, thoughtful policymaking, and ongoing collaboration. I want to walk through the plan for tonight Some of which is outlined in the communications from other city officers. After we place that on file, we can go ahead into the City Manager's agenda items. will pull all of them and the city manager will speak to all of We'll be using Rule 23F, which allows each City Councilor to take the floor for up to two times per agenda item and ask up to 2 questions of city staff each time. Thank you so much for joining us.

To be specific as to which item that you're asking questions on, we will be using the timer tonight and you'll be allowed to hold the floor for up to five minutes. I ask that you ask your second question by the five-minute mark after which staff will be permitted time needed to respond within reason. After the City Manager's Agenda items, we can move to policy orders if they haven't already been raised earlier through a suspension of the rules. We do have a late policy order as well which requires suspension. As we get into tonight, I ask my colleagues and everyone who's here tonight to really respect each other's perspectives. People come to these issues with different experiences and different viewpoints, and it's important that we create space to listen to one another with respect. Thank you very much.

on the business before the council. So I want to just preview what will, the order of business that we'll have and just repeat after I speak we'll Go ahead to welcome the city manager's team to the table. Unless there are questions or comments regarding the order of business, I will entertain a motion to place this communication from other city officers on file. On a motion by Councilor Simmons to place this communication on file and move to the City Matters of Agenda, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We are now moving on to the City Manager's Agenda. Communication transmitted from Ian Huang, City Manager Relative of the city's violence prevention efforts.

We have a communication transmitted from Ion Huang, city manager relative to a community safety department update We have a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to a report on 2026 Summer Community Programs. And we have a With that, with all those in front of us, I will go ahead to the city manager.

Thank you so much, Mayor Siddiqui. Just to do maybe some introductions. Maybe we'll just go through and do some quick introductions, and then we can walk through the memos that we've submitted.

Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Kwame Dance. I am the city's new Assistant Director for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.

Marie Matthews, Director of the Community Safety Department.

Pauline Wells, the acting police commissioner.

And we also have Michelle Farnham who runs all of our programs on youth and families here with us as well so Thank you all. Appreciate so much, so many people who turned out and testified and also for the opportunity for this conversation. We are all Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. We have continually been looking at our programs, building them over the years. Many of the programs that we currently run in human services, programs that the police department has built have been over the years responses to how we can do better.

And I think that's a lot of the conversation tonight. We've submitted a number of memos, I think the first is an update from the community safety department We had a conversation in February that was a report on recommendations for how the city provides a more comprehensive violence prevention effort. That has been the conversation that we've been having for a number of years, and it's one that's been really important for us to do better on. And a lot of the conversation with the community and the feedback from the council over the is how we're doing this work not just Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much.

and that report was the beginning of a conversation to say, how do we do this? That led to the hiring of Dr. Kwame Dance Thank you very much. For us to discuss. And I think for us to continue to be going out to the community and having additional conversations about how we strengthen these efforts, and how we build them across all of our city departments, and So many of the community organizations that are doing this work. We've also provided a summary of the active programs that run every summer. We do this every year, there was one we put up in 2025 and this is just a summary of all the programs that have been built over time across a number of departments.

And then finally, just put up the report from February just to have it attached to this agenda But looking forward to the conversation, to questions and discussion. And maybe I'll turn it over to Dr. Dance for any quick remarks or to Director Mathieu.

Again, thank you everybody. Thank you Councilor McGovern. First off just condolences to the family of Xavier Bautista and all of the families who have been impacted by violence, gun violence in our city. And we know that we have Thank you very much. and that's what I'm committed to do. That's what Marie and Safety are committed to, that's our city manager has invested in terms of elevating community voices.

I just wanted to really quickly introduce myself before we get into the response. I am a Cambridge kid I grew up in the Cambridge Port neighborhood, the coast. I have worked in nonprofit organizations including Cambridge Community Center and Leadership. I've worked in the Department of Human Service programs as a youth worker. I have coached football, I've been a board member of organizations so I just say that not to... I went to Cambridge Regional Latin School and I'm a clinical psychologist I say all of those things just to highlight the importance of my positioning in the community and the community broadly. because we see that there aren't always, everybody isn't always represented in these spaces and my job is to get out there

All of the communities with all of the resources that we have available to us. A big part of my role is to connect with our neighbors in Boston and Somerville and other cities which we've already begun doing, and to follow national data and national models so that we can be ahead of the game. Cambridge is a trend center in this nation, and we should be. And that is my goal and our goal So thank you. We'll get to the immediate responses that we've done shortly.

Anything else from what's in the agenda item that you'd like to touch on before we ask for questions?

Okay, I'll get into them. Since the 4th, I just want to go through some of the things that have happened. All right, so on July 5th, there was initial... There was an initial meeting with community safety department, care team, Department of Public Works, Riverside Trauma Center, the deputy city manager to establish an initial approach for, oh and the police department excuse me. To establish an initially approach for Department of Public Works support in broader community response coordination There were many other meetings prior to that that I was not there for, and there were many meetings since then.

So that next day, the 6th, the care team and Riverside Trauma Center met with Department of Public Works to be there for their employees. Contact was already made at that point by the city manager and Mayor Siddiqui. with the family. So from 6 a.m. to 11 a. m., that happened that afternoon, CARE and others in this room went to the family's home to offer support spoke with his mother, put some supports in place for his family and will continue doing that. I won't get into the exact supports but Just because we want to preserve their privacy, but there have been wraparound supports that all departments have been involved in are here represented today. Between the 6th and 8th of July, we identified

Location, the facilitator and planned all aspects across departments for the community meeting that was held. at the Senior Center. We made several efforts to have that meeting in other locations in the city that were closer to the neighborhood where the event happened, However, the Senior Center was the best option for that meeting given various circumstances with facilities but we had that. Community Meeting. On July 9th, we participated in a post-meeting debrief planning activities that was with everybody involved, everyone in this room who's represented and others, Cambridge Health Alliance There were several meetings with members of the community, as Mayor Siddiqui named.

Several meetings with some of the cool community-based organization leaders that were mentioned today and who we've funded. and continue to support. So Margaret Fuller House, Cambridge Heart, MBK, My Brother's Keeper, On The Rise, Inner City Weightlifting and Sister 2 Sister Community Conversations, We've All Met and Others. We continued engagement with the family And there's been, as I mentioned, ongoing family support for the family as well as the community members who were most directly impacted.

Mademir.

Thank you.

Councilor Simmons. Through you to Dr. Dance, when you're talking, you really have to talk right into the mic. I apologize. Because as you turn your head, your voice goes with it and so I know I can't hear anything you're saying, so... Just a reminder, you'll get used to it over time. What did he say? We have to get signs on the mic saying, speak in the mic all time. So just want to remind you.

Will do. Thank you, Councilor Simmons. Is there anything that is worth repeating from the text messages you got? Thank you.

Okay, thank you Assistant Director Dance. Anything else from folks before we get into questions? Okay, so as I said, we'll start with two questions. Again, if you have... It would be easier to just say, okay I have a question about the community safety update or I have questions about the 2026 summer community programs and be as specific as possible. So pleasure of the City Council. Yes, Councilor McGovern.

Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor. Thank So I guess my first question, and maybe this is for you, Dr. Dance, although I know you're relatively new to the position, but you're a Cambridge kid. There we go. All these interventions, we've had some of the same ones for a long time, some different ones. And yet we continue to have... Young people that slipped through the cracks. Why do you think that is? What are we not doing right? Why are we reaching more young people to get involved in these programs, or is there something that we're just not doing Thank you very much.

Thank you for the question, Councillor McGovern. I think that The short way of answering that question is, that's our job to find out and do A very comprehensive look at what those factors are. We don't know that some of these individuals aren't already taking Some of the folks that I know who have been involved over the years were very involved in city programs. So, that's part of the work and part of So that in the fall we can produce a more comprehensive report and get the stories of those community members I think my role is to connect the dots, be a connector so that we're offering the most cohesive wraparound support

engage all of the city entities as well as the partners to address that.

Great, thank you. Next question, Madam Mayor and then I really if you could talk a little bit more about and maybe it's too early, but we look at a lot of the crime that happens in the city, the gun activity that happens Folks from outside of Cambridge. There's always been a tension between Somerville and Cambridge, and in my day you would fight. It wasn't guns, right? So I'm interested in that work that you're doing to reach out specifically to Somerville and Boston. And how do you envision that, and where do you see that going?

Thank you. So, we've already connected with Boston's Violence Prevention Director who is a Cambridge kid also I was his Little League coach. Yep, there we go, exactly. I was one of his youth workers at one point, so... But yeah, he and I have spoken. He and I will be attending some of his standing meetings to kind of get a sense of what they're doing over the bridge. A willingness to share information which that can help keep our city safe. The police and I have also connected with

Folks who are doing this work in Somerville Police Department, so we have some meetings and actually an upcoming conference that I'll be attending with some of those folks.

McGovern.

Great, thank you and great having you here and I think it's so important to have someone who knows the community and has the respect of the community because Thank you.

I have Councillor Nolan, who's next?

Thank you. We are asking questions on any one of the city managers' review. Thank you This is a heavy time for the City We're here because of a tragedy and we should have had this conversation anyway, because violence prevention is something we are all deeply invested in. And we know that this tragedy Thank you. I wanted to note that there was a very positive move it looks like of shifting the contract from ROCA to the community safety department. is something we've been talking about for a while since the Community Safety Department was created by Council Initiative due to the work coming out of McGovern and Councillor Simmons' work to try to...

do more in the city outside of and to offload from the police department. We don't want duplicative processes and siloing of departments so I was really happy to see that. I'm not sure if there's any understanding of how that will be It also allows the police department to focus on their critical work. Some work and services are better accomplished, we know, with civilian city employees. And for some, the police department is better tools. So I wanted to understand how is it that overall from this report there's this Thank you for joining us. Massive investment in community safety. And for instance, peer cities, are we using them? How is it that we expect to see a reduction in...

Diversions to the criminal justice system, is it that we expect to see a very specific reduction in the number of violent crimes and other crimes? So I'm just interested in how is it Very lengthy report about the initiatives that are being taken on.

Councilor Nolan, can you actually ask your second question too? Because of the time. Okay.

Yeah, the second question on violence prevention is very similar in that Tony Clark, in his testimony and in his letter to us, called out very specific cities with good violence prevention work. Berkeley, St. Paul, and Ann Arbor. So how is it that we're incorporating those into our...

Thank you. So Ty and Tony from MBK are two of our partners for an organization that we funded in the past, I've already met with Ty twice, Tony once thus far. Also some other individuals, I think in the footnotes of the document, I shared some of the resources that some Folks we've talked with, some of the local and national leaders in this work have shared with us. And there are many more. So we are committed and have a commitment from other folks to help us compile and dissect what's working in other spaces, particularly communities that are similar to Cambridge in demographic. and size, types of resources. In terms of the benchmarks

So that is, so I think you've heard in public comment we're looking at root causes. It is one thing and there will be some quantitative data collected for sure. I'm a big mixed method guy. but we will be looking at some of the decreases over time, and recommendations that will come in the fall for that comprehensive plan, that draft of a comprehensive plan. But one thing that we really are addressing, and this is also highlighted a few times, is the feeling. And addressing a feeling of safety in the community It's measurable in different ways.

How many folks report that they feel safe walking through the halls at the high school or walking outside at night? and those are the things that are going to take stories. And we're going to be having focus groups, community meetings, things of that nature to be able to get that data as well. It's very important.

Nolan, we can come back to you.

I would just say more specific data focus groups don't cut it.

I completely understand and that's the work for this summer. Thank you.

We have Councilor Zusy next and then Councilor Flaherty.

Thank you, Chair Siddiqui. Across the city with human services, the police department care hard. It seems like we're doing a lot of really great work. And in the report, the CPD reports that you're increasing patrols, increasing visibility, increasing bike patrols. You're increasing collaboration with ROCA So my two questions are What does the Cambridge Police Department feel would be most important to do in addition? And then are there alternative technologies to ShopSpotter? Like I was Googling on the web, it looks like there's a technology called Intelisi. That uses cameras, or just by adding more cameras as in Councilor Azeem's policy order. Are there other things that we could be doing that you think would make our residents feel more safe?

So I think just procedurally that we could pause the time, but the late policy order is not before us. We should suspend the rules to just bring it forward if that's what the question is going to talk about. So in a motion by Vice Mayor, and we don't have to dispose of it but we just have to talk On a motion by Vice Mayor Azeem to suspend the rules, to bring forward that late policy order. We'll do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi No. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes. Yes, Councilor Flaherty? Yes! Yes, Councillor McGovern? Yes Yes, councillor Nolan? Yes yes, Councillor Simmons? Yes Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes Yes Mayor Siddiqui. Yes Eight members voting in the affirmative and one voting in negative So those are the two questions that Councillor Zusie asked

Through you, Madam Mayor. If I can recall the first question correctly, what else can the police department do? Something struck me during the community meeting on July 9th when some of the family members were talking about safety. And a lot of them had mentioned police officers and one of the specific... Thank you for joining us. You know, the police department really does a lot of work as you can see in the document around trying to do a lot community engagement along with other city departments as well and I think You know, when you say a kid from Cambridge, and I'm also a kid

to get the officers out there, especially these new 19 officers. A lot of them are very young, some of them from Cambridge. and to get them out there and to be able to meet people where they are on bikes, on foot not sitting in the car and keeping the windows up. I think it's just understanding that the police officers are human, too. The interactions that they have with them puts them in that light and puts them more at ease And what was the second question?

Are there alternative technologies outside of ShotSpotter that might make the community feel more safe, whether it's IntelliGC or additional cameras?

As you know, we did the pilot for the Central Square Public Safety Cameras and that was... that has worked out very well with the information and data we have from them since they've been up. So public safety cameras are always a good thing as well because Thank you for watching. We do, and since then we have put together some data around other places that the cameras could go if we so choose to put them up. And we've also just received $120,000 from the Urban Security Initiative for public safety cameras. And we have some data to show that where the next ones could go up or should go up in conjunction with where the council would want them to go as well.

As far as alternatives to ShotSpotter, I would say that ShotSpodder is something is different from anything else that we've seen so far anyway. IntelliSea, which is the thing you have spoken about I have done a little bit of research on that and what it does is with lots of cameras. and using AI, it says that it will detect when a gun is in view of the cameras. That's what I know of that at this point. So, I do believe though you would need an awful lot of cameras to do that. Not saying we couldn't but I think we'd have to look more into that technology.

Yeah, from my Google it sounds like... It notices if someone might be holding a gun or there's this sudden gathering of people. So it's another way of trying to stop violence before it happens, to be able to predict its happening. Thank you.

We have Councilor Flaherty next and then Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler followed by Councilor Al Zubi.

Thank you, Madam Ed. Dr. Dentz, thank you. And thank you for telling us about your background. I'm also from Cambridge. And just so you understand my perspective, my background is when I began my legal career, I was a prosecutor and part of my job was responding to murder scenes and managing state police detectives, crime scene analysts collecting preserving evidence and working to build a case that could result in a successful prosecution. After I left the DA's office, I went into criminal defense and have done a range of cases. But in addition to being from Cambridge, I've had the occasion Kids from Cambridge, including Corey Davis, who you may remember was murdered in 2006 on Hamilton Street. And he set off a wave of violence between the Port and North Cambridge and this is an ongoing feud.

It's a gun battle, and it's evolved from the port, from Port 44 to The Mystic Projects, and continues And, you know, so I've got two kind of questions about this. The first is, I understand that maybe the ROCA contract is being shifted to the Cambridge Safety Department. I've experience with their cognitive behavioral therapy, which is as you know Harvard Medical School and Mass General. And it's been effective in my view what I've seen personally and I think one of the reasons why it's effective is because their workers meet these kids where they are. They get on the street, they go into the projects, they meet them, they and they build that relationship and trust that the commissioner was just mentioning, that one of the young people at the community meeting mentioned police officers by their name.

Is there some thought, and I'll move on to my second question, to modeling that sort of ROCA? Thank you very much. And I'm told that the Cambridge police are not allowed to do this, but I know that when there's shootings in Cambridge, oftentimes Derrida... preceded or followed by wrapped videos that are posted online. They're on social media, either by participants, witnesses, victims. I'm going to come and shoot you since you shot at me. I'm told that law enforcement, because of the surveillance ordinance, are not allowed to search social media and see those YouTube videos, social media postings. Thank you very much.

and then as part of all that, I know this is a report that will be prepared and submitted in the fall. Thank you very much. and who knows if there's any retaliatory violence coming from that. But I think we all know There is a high probability there will be another shooting in Cambridge during the summer months, either connected to this or totally unconnected to it. And would it make sense in the immediate... to have the technologies we're talking about reinstituting and to help Thank you very much.

You and your team will be providing, hopefully in the immediate future.

So part of the question I think is probably better answered for some other folks on this Thank you very much. I've spent 10 years working outpatient as a clinician in Roxbury, and I've worked with a lot of folks at ROCA and my outside work. So I have a great relationship with the organization. Joe has been awesome, and has been willing to share Some of their practices. And we're also committed... We had a meeting last week about... Joe was just asking how... Thank you for joining us.

Quite a bit since I started, and I have a lot of friends on the force. And I told him that we will absolutely be working Together collaboratively, however, honoring the decision to move the grant up to Cambridge Safety so that we can have that more community embedded approach. So they're going to be coming, I think, to a big event in the community that everybody got to cook out at the end of the summer. I know a wall. Yep, yep. So and they're committed to helping us with those things as well as the care team is out in the community. Care team is out in the community every day and meeting folks and doing the work as a mom. So it's all part of the work. Thank you.

Commissioner? And I think some of your question, Councilor Ferry, also was the social media question.

Sorry, missed that part. Yeah, and I have... I'm from the community, friends in the community. I'm not going to share my personal Instagram account here but I do have connections on that. My role... Thank my role. I didn't sign up for a role to be... The primary source for any kind of litigation that would come or information, I think I'd be most effective Understanding the community at large, including social media and any kind of communication that exists by embedding myself in building trusted relationships with other community members. Recently, a good friend of mine who I've worked with just told me if a young person who had been on the radar and was

Thank you for joining us. He's not living in Cambridge now. Committed to not coming back to Cambridge and has two jobs and all the things, and has gotten into his faith And he just wanted that person to know how much they appreciated them and how much They don't want to reoffend. So those are the kinds of relationships That I want to continue to capitalize on and build, Those community relationships

Commissioner.

Regarding social media and the surveillance policy for the police department, any open source data we can use but as far as making an account so that we can look at other accounts, we are unable to do that.

So we'll come back to you, Councilor Flaherty. In a second round I have Councilors Smear and Wheeler and then Councilor Al-Zubi.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I wanted to since we're talking about the community safety department suspend the rules to pull policy order number two about the Community Safety Department and violence prevention

Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler is moving to suspend the rules, to take up the policy order number two. I'll read it afterwards. We'll go into suspension and we'll do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Flaherty? Yes! Yes. Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

That policy order is on the floor and it's around asking around appropriate levels of support and staffing for the community safety. Department. This was filed by myself, Councilor Sirena-Wheeler and Councilor Nolan. Councilor Serena Wheeler you have the floor.

Thanks Madam Mayor I wanted to introduce this since we're talking a lot about the community safety Thank you to the co-sponsors. First, just step back and I appreciate the context that we're having this in. having multiple departments here. Five years ago in my first term, we did not even have a community safety department. I appreciate now that we have two folks from the department sitting at the table along with Cambridge Police Department and the Department of Human Services Program thinking about public safety holistically in this way. The Community Safety Department came out of a policy order from the Council in 2020, I think the entire council was on it at that time asked to be co-sponsors on it includes clinical services and violence prevention in the care team, which I think to folks outside City Hall is maybe the most visible part. And they're like green shirts and vans. The goals of this policy order are twofold. It's one, to lift up the existing violence prevention work that the community safety department is doing on its own and in partnerships with community organizations and say we need to expand that work

and number two it's to recognize the critical work that the care team within the community safety department does to promote public safety both in the immediate response when someone is in crisis and in the ongoing care management, case management work that they do. and ensure that the care team has the resources and support they need to eventually become an around-the-clock crisis response team and respond to all the calls that they're eligible to be responding to. on the violence prevention work. The Community Safety Department is not the only department that does that, and I have another policy order talking more about that Appreciate the partnerships with community organizations including Cambridge Heart, Sister 2 Sister, My Brother's Keeper, InterCity Weightlifting and On The Rise as well as the new partnership with the Margaret Floyd Neighborhood House. We need to build on that work. And then, on the care team in particular, it's been running for two years now. It's now operating Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., responded to more than 1,200 calls in the first year alone.

I've said this before, but it's one of the pieces when I'm out at conferences around the country, things that I get city officials asking me the most about. What are you doing on the emergency response? How do you do it? What's it like to set it up? What is it like two years in? There is such a hunger for this from communities around the country, and it speaks to their responsibility to get this right not only for our residents but because there are so many communities looking to us to get that right. When you think about the crisis response in the ongoing case management That is how we stop violence before it occurs. It's reaching someone when they are having the worst day of their life, before things spiral out of control. I think other departments, Cambridge Police Department, DHSP are doing this well. The care team is uniquely positioned to do it Thank you so much for joining us. with family at the multi-service center, the housing department.

And we need folks who can build the trust to do that and that's what the care team in the community safety department is uniquely positioned to do and we need to keep expanding it You know, I think the research has come out or that article is eligible. The care team is eligible to respond to certain call codes at this point. It's only about less than half that they're eligible to, about 45%. and there's a lot of reasons for that. I think the team is relatively new, it's operating Monday to Friday still just 7am-7pm which means maybe emergency communications is not in the habit of sending all the calls they're eligible to go to and also understandably dispatchers are being cautious in figuring out when to send an unarmed response. But this policy order, the goal is to make it clear that it's absolutely critical to make sure The community safety department and the care team are getting the support and resources they need. It can't continue to be the case that they're only getting 45% of the calls, or that it's only Monday through Friday for a limited number of hours. We need to keep building this out.

The work of the community safety department and the community organizations do the violent prevention work is not a nice to have or a bonus to have, it's essential public safety to disrupting violence and making community Cambridge safe.

Thank you, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. This is on the floor. Folks can ask questions about it and again If you have questions on those for community, the City Matters agenda, you can ask there. Your team here wants to say anything about this PO, they're welcome to. I have Councilor Al-Zubi afterwards. Is this a clarifying question, Councilor Simmons?

To Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes, go ahead. Thank you Madam Chair through you. So what you're asking, because I want to support it in the spirit of collaboration. I'm just not clear. So you're saying for if I'm reading the right one The order is that the city manager be in hereby requested to provide a comprehensive evaluation of violence response prevention strategies along with... No, this is not that one.

That's not before us. This one is number two under policy orders that the city managers hereby requested a report on progress of the February 2026 reports, recommendations and plans for ensuring appropriate levels of support and staffing Handle by the care team and a timeline for more comprehensive staffing for the care emergency. Got it?

Yeah, I got it. Okay. Blame Councilor McGovern. He told me the wrong one. Through you, Madam Chair. I support it in theory. The only question I have, Councilor, is and I was going to talk about this earlier how do we engage the community to be part of the solution? Now, I know we have these programs and I think that's important, and I want to make sure we do fund them so they can do their job right alongside CPD and any other program. My only hesitation and maybe it can be added that what you're asking under this first order is done in the context of talking to the people Thank you very much.

to continue funding, great. But we have to pause and have an opportunity where we hear from the port neighborhood riverside, North Cambridge. So I'll yield the floor but that's a concern of mine.

Serena Wheeler.

Yeah, I'd love to hear more about that. I think the part that you're engaging with the community organizations is sort of deeply built into the structure of the Community Safety Department. It's not just city staff we're funding. I think My Brother's Keeper, Cambridge Heart, Sister2Sister, On The Rise. These are community organizations that I think the work that these folks have done is really embedded. I think we can and should have more conversations about that, but I think these groups, I see them out every day. I see the care team out talking to members of the community. I've seen these community organizations I ran into them whether I'm at North Cambridge, out by the towers. I see some of the community orgs they're funding doing this work and getting this feedback from residents. I've seen them distributing clothes. All the time. I'm very open to having more conversations, whether that's in the Government Operations Committee, the Civic Union Committee. We can do those conversations out in the community.

I guess I'm trying to understand just a little bit more about where the question is coming from because I see the care team out there in the community as much as I see other departments, Cambridge Police Department, DHSP. I don't see the care team in the community safety department as uniquely Walda and City Hall, so I guess I'm just trying to understand a little bit more where that conversation or that question is coming from.

So folks, in the interest of time because we have a lot more to get into, the policy orders generally come kind of after the city manager's updates. I would recommend Before we go back and forth on this, we asked this team here for any questions related to the report itself. And so I had Councilor... The reports themselves. I have Councilor Al-Zubi, and then I have Vice Mayor Azeem.

Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, I have a comment here and a question and honestly going to try to do my best but I probably know I'll go over time so we'll try to speak articulately and quickly. Someone from the community meeting said something that really stuck with me She said something along the lines that death is the one thing we're guaranteed in this life, but there needs to be mercy and dignity in death. And for that I hold such a deep spiritual pain for Xavier and his family and all families that experience gun violence. because it was an act of senseless violence. And in everything I say tonight, it's gonna come from that perspective Now for the memo from the Community Safety Department, I appreciate the update. It's awesome to see the operating model. I just also want to acknowledge that we need to give CSD a proper chance independent of the police department. The work that came into CSD was explicitly Thank you very much.

We also do that financially. We rope CSD and we rope CPD under the same public safety umbrella, even though we spend roughly $57 million on the CPD budget for this year. And that's an estimate because we're not including overtime. And then we are roughly spending $2.7 million on CSD. And then within CSD, we're spending only 300K on community organizations that do some of that on-the-ground work. I don't think that's dignified spending. And if we truly want to believe that violence stems from trauma and stability, we have to address what creates that trauma and instability. And I hear the pain. I do. And i hear what you're saying and I do appreciate the work that you're doing every day I also witnessed the Memorial Drive shooting and it's very traumatizing, especially as someone who has navigated every single day my people being obliterated by bombs and snipered in the head. Trauma works in really strange ways Reactionary measures, they're easy to grapple with especially when people are in fear.

I hold that, I get that and it can also perpetuate more harm Root causes, on the other hand, are way harder to grapple with because they're intersectional. When people don't have a place to live or food to eat or they're born into a specific zip code, are we going to blame them? People are tired, you guys. When are we going to decide that what we've been doing for decades doesn't work, doesn't change the rate of crime? Where's our humanity in that conversation? And I don't want to lose sight of addressing gun violence reduction and interruption as well because this memo brings up a lot of that again in the operating model, and I appreciate that. And I do believe that if we can work on it, a working group focused on examining how forces affect gun violence rate in Cambridge and it should be led by community members who are especially at risk and have experienced that violence. they should be at the table doing that work and deciding what factors truly navigate and affect rates of violence.

Because let me tell you, the Roca Outreachers' work all those young men that are especially at risk they're almost all homeless or displaced even though they come from Cambridge. So I guess my question is a bit of a rhetorical one because I sat with all the different pieces here But what explicitly are we going to be doing for the material conditions of people in our city? We had Rise Up, and that was a small example of that. On the root cause side, what I saw was the Mayer Summer Youth Program. It pays $15 an hour, 20 hours a week, $300 a week which is minimum wage. Do we think that's a serious anti-poverty intervention? Because I don't think it is. When we talk about affordable housing, are we actually talking about actual affordable housing? When you talk about supporting our residents with evictions, are they going to do something on the ground or just turn to the state level to do that work? because we know that there's a correlation between eviction rates and violence.

I have a lot more to say, I think I sat down, I've been doing so much digging in conversations on four different categories of how we tackle this and part of this is in the operating model One, preventing gun violence long before it starts. I have a list of things but I know I'm not gonna get to it. Two when violence is about to happen Three, when violence just happened. And I think there is room for us to engage on that and I do want to do that work thoughtfully with you. And then four which is arguably the hardest one to solve is how do we solve crime when it does happen? I'm sitting with all those, and I also just want to acknowledge that a lot of the capacity in the memo on the summer programs, a lot for relationship building has been given to the police department. and I'm okay with that if we give the community organizations a chance to also build those relationships, but they can't. They can't. They're worried about where they're going to get their next 10K, to be able to run through one coordinator.

Do we really think 300k for five groups is going to actually do the work to reduce gun violence reduction? Are we going to continue to do decades of the same conversation of saying we need more technology when all we see from technology is that it doesn't Thank you, Councilor Al-Zubi. It does not reduce the rate of crime.

That's time. So some of these were rhetorical questions but if folks want to speak to... anything they're welcome to and if not I'll move on to Vice Mayor Azeem and then Councilor Simmons.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Azeem, your two questions.

When Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler was talking I thought we were shifting to council discussion so happy to come back when we get there.

Okay. Questions on the four memos? Councilor Simmons.

Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. Just an opening statement. First of all, it's good to see you, Dr. Dance. I'll speak personally. This is not my first meeting like this. I've been here for about 40 years and we've done it Thank you. Thank you very much. This statement by Frederick Delacus, and it says, It's easier to build strong children than to prepare adults. I think we're okay. Thank you.

and then the not residents of Cambridge. And we would know that if someone walked into the hood and talked to the guys that hang out, that I talk to every day who told me or could tell me where to go and who to do it. Two more statements and then the question. I'm looking for a long-term plan. I want to see a sustained effort regardless of who sits in these chairs that we're going to say, the goal is how are we going to be better? Thank you very much. It's how do we work together? Because if we can't be respectful with one another, then we can get to where we want to do, which is a city that's safe, respectful and the best place to live. So I want to know what's the long short term plan. Whatever solutions that we come up with, they're supported by our neighbors.

And we do that by listening, engaging, identifying the problem educating the community on how to be involved and have them engaged in the solution. And so my question is to Ms. Farr and I'm through you, Madam Chair. I know we do a lot. It's in your work product. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We kept saying the youth, the youth and finally I said but we're not talking about kids. We hold our kids tight from kindergarten to 18 sometimes 21 and then we drop them off the map

So here's adults that are not receiving service in a society and in the city that has racial and classes and feminist bias. I know you do your best, so this is not aimed at you. Could you speak to us of what we're doing around working with adult grown people?

Councilor Simmons, just in the interest of time can you ask your second question which is what we've been doing I don't know if I have a second question I mean the big thing was

No, I don't. If I can think of one before we go home tonight at 12 o'clock, I'll ask it. Assistant Director Farnham?

Thanks for that question. Some of the answer depends on how we define adult, right? So you mentioned 21, 18. Some of our programs we talk about 26. So it really depends on what we're talking about adults. I can tell you some of the things that are specifically focused on adults from human services perspective. Many of them live in the Office of Workforce Development, So we've got a program called Next Up. That is for the 18 to 24-year-olds who have, I think the best description is sort of Thank you.

In this work-based learning program, the idea is to help them develop a career plan by trying things out, by having the support of a counselor and really trying to have a supported path for them. I think you know also about our CSI program, which is also focused on Folks that have just transitioned out of high school, this is to support them into both getting into and completing a post-secondary degree. So that is something that we do case management with deeply partnership with young people who are adults in order to support them through that

I heard the bells. I know my time is up, but I just want to say you're going in the direction that I think we need to go to. We can't keep saying kids. Please stop saying It's not just kids. We have great programs. I still call Kwame a kid because he looks so young.

We'll come back on a second round if necessary. Anyone who hasn't asked their two questions on the COF? I do have two quick questions. First would be I think it was Councilor Al-Zubi who brought up a point around the organizations, who we look at and partners in this work. And I'm curious about that early thinking around not just that funding piece but the process As the February report recommended that Cambridge Safety revise the RFA process. So what does that look like?

Through you, Madam Mayor. One of the things that we discussed earlier While we were compiling the information for the report that came directly from a lot of the organizations that we have funded in the past is One, the RFP process can be very difficult and it can sometimes discourage organizations from even applying for funding through the community safety department. The other theme that came up through some of those conversations is that They don't necessarily feel like they have a support, even though they were receiving financial funding from the department. Thank you for joining us.

is that there will be a point person in the city within the community safety department to work. In a more coordinated way with the organizations that we are providing funding to. So currently, we are working with Margaret Fuller House. They have been awarded Thank you very much. The neighborhood level and then also working with the other organizations we funded in the past to continue in a more coordinated effort with the folks that we provide funding to.

Thank you. In this time remaining, and I meant to ask my second question so everyone did their homework except me on this so I apologize The second question was on the summer programs update. I want to just understand, Commissioner, a question on the patrols. Can you speak to the 19 new patrol officers? Where were they previously assigned and how are the areas for priority decided? 19 new officers graduated from the police academy

in June. And at this point, they are spending their time with their FTOs which is the field training officers. I believe it's 26 weeks? 26 weeks that they spend with a field training officer just to make them feel more comfortable doing what they do and to have someone to bounce ideas off of and learn from. They could be on bikes, they could be walking. We really use data to move the deployment around the city honestly and they do spend a lot of time in the port, and they spend a lotta time in other places as well. It could be Hoyt Field, it could be Puerto Square, Central or Harvard, depending on what's going on at that particular time or if we have a trend that might be happening as well. If that's helpful. Thank you.

So we went through a first round of questions on these items. If folks have other questions, I'll give them time and then we can move to place them in file. Govern, and I have Councilor Nolan.

I'll yield because the question just left my head.

No worries. Councilor

Thanks. I want to follow up on what you started, Mayor Siddiqui about the report on the 2026 summer community programs It was, again, it was so good to see this listed out. Some of programs, so many that I knew of, so Many I didn't know of and I want to, So my two questions will be one for the ones from extensive on mostly under DHSP and as was noted earlier anywhere from Camp Rainbow all the way to Cambridge Works which we're aware of which goes from not just 18-24 year olds which CSI does but also 18 to 35 year olds, so exactly the young adults and on the range of I think it's the question we're all grappling with which is How is it that we're measuring effectiveness of the programs?

So the question is how do we compare to other cities on the measures that we're using? And then my second question is lifting up the remarks by Councilor Simmons. Thank you very much. Many of them it means that we can help support them out of it and others we really need to understand that for some there's other consequences that have to happen in order to ensure that that behavior doesn't continue. But our questions seem to indicate that many of the young adults that are in trouble are not ones that were grown in Cambridge, that come from outside. So I'm just curious of how we see that changing That fitting into our attempts to do the violence prevention. And I know that, for instance, when I was on school committee one of the things we looked at is well For those kids who started in kindergarten, how are they doing by 12th grade? And separately, let's make sure that we're not conflating that with people who may have had very different experiences and come in eighth or ninth grade.

I think it's that kind of question that's really important for us to address as well, to ensure that we understand how it is that our programs are unfolding and providing the basis for hopefully healthy, productive adult lives of people who feel safe in our communities. So it's really about how do we measure an effectiveness on those two, both the DHSP programs and then in the police department.

Through you, Mayor. Just a quick response. You know, I think if we look at the programs that we're running, I It does look very similar. And so I think the level of programming that we provide over the summer to youth throughout the year for young adults, I think that is... Thank you very much. There are so many touch points across folks who may have a number of needs, but especially when there's a crisis point, who's on point? and so I think the coordination of efforts is really something we need to do better on. We had a conversation in the last months with the libraries where

You know, they're sometimes experiencing significant disruption kids who should be in school or aren't in school. There is some aspect of that that always happens you know they were looking at It's great that they're in the libraries. Thank you so much for joining us. picking that up on the side. And even with the resources they have, we have a social worker, We have actually a specific position to create programming for students who are coming out of middle school or high school so that they can have something do in the libraries

But if those folks aren't coming up with an answer or haven't figured it out across all of the array of programs within the city and also in the community, How do we coordinate that flow of information better? And also, how do we do that appropriately as well? Because on the one hand I think we feel like if we've got people who are falling through the cracks and we have relationships, we wanna be able to wrap around them and find the adult or the person who can reach out to them. At the same time, we also recognize people don't want their information being shared that freely as well. So I think we've got to figure out how we do this better and I think that's a lot of what we've been talking about internally in the work that Dr. Danz will be doing.

I'll just add to that. There are many spaces that are doing that coordinated work, so we have the A lot of them fall within DHSP, and I remember that from being a former DHSP employee. But we have the RAE, the Reaching All Youth meeting that happens monthly where you bring all Folks from nonprofit organizations, city entities together to talk about the work and share resources. There's obviously safety net with the police as well. Dr. Jamie Barrett, I'm a member of the Human Services Commission so we're looking at those data points there. So that as is. as is the deputy commissioner. So we have police representation us there.

We are positioned well to be better connectors.

I had Councilor McGovern for a question and then Councilor Zusy.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you.

I think the Commissioner might have wanted to add too.

I didn't see that so you can briefly respond and then we move on.

To you, We also partner with a lot of programs, but I will say the Youth Academy this summer is the biggest one we've ever had. People want to come to it, and they really enjoy it. Somehow I hope through things like this that we could actually get more Cambridge residents to take this job. That is one of my biggest hopes because it does make a difference, as everybody saw in that community meeting. It makes a difference if you're from Cambridge. I really believe that. and we want our police department to look like the community. So, in those types of programs Definitely help that. I will say the safety net that Dr. Dance mentioned, we have reduced juvenile arrests by 80% since we started safety net.

So it does, these programs do have a great impact on what we do and how people look and see us in the community.

Council Member Govorn?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you, I want to agree and appreciate with what Councilor Simmons said about the young adults, right? And making sure that we have programs to support Thank you very much. I was volunteering in a fifth grade classroom at the Tobin School back in 92, I think it was, 93. And here's this kid in fifth grade so 10 or 11 years old, boy of color lived in public housing, incredibly smart, incredibly charismatic just had a lot of things going for him but was already talking about at that age that Thank you very much.

Getting those interventions in, and sadly we did lose him. He ended up passing away. And so getting those interventions early. So it brings me to my question of something you said earlier Dr. Danz about A lot of the young people I'm talking about, not the adults but kids that do take part in a How can we improve the communication between programs? Because, you know, we always talk about Cambridge having a lot of dots and no lines. So you've got a kid in an after-school program who's also with My Brother's Keeper, Inner City Boxing, right? But those organizations are not necessarily talking to each other about that child. So it's not really wraparound services. It's individual services that aren't necessarily connected. And this has been the case for decades, right?

So how do we crack that and what do we do to make sure that folks are talking to each other so we really can put our arms around these kids?

I think I'm going to loop in Michelle and I went to Tobin and know exactly who we're talking about, so thinking about him.

Thank you. That is the question, and we do have many opportunities in Cambridge to share young people and talk about those young people. The programs that we're talking about They are protective factors. We can't guarantee that somebody doesn't slip through the cracks. The issues of violence that we're talking about are not because... Somebody wasn't in a program. These are due to all the issues from many of the people that spoke today, right? This is about poverty. This is not racism. This is about all of those things and these programs in participating in these programs for youth, this is about protective factors to help shield against What inevitably happens when you don't interrupt that.

In Cambridge, as we talked about through SafetyNet and other group kind of collaborative efforts, we do talk about young people. We have the Agenda for Children program Thank you very much. Our staff across programs know each other. And the safety net initiative, police, Human Service Programs, the schools, public health. We're all at the table and we're specifically there to talk about young people who aren't connected to programs. How do we interrupt Like some bad behaviors that we're seeing. How do we make sure we get young people to the resources that we are funding in this city? And that's the point of the Safety Net Initiative.

And just like an example, yesterday I was spending the afternoon in one of our programs at the Moore Youth Center, the Sports Leadership Academy. and who was there playing with the kids in the gym? Officer Marcus Collins, right? He spent the afternoon there as well. And Marcus Collins makes a difference because He was a young person who played in that gym, in the same place. It matters and the work that the CPD is doing in partnership with the schools and with human services Zusy. Thank you. So we have two challenges. We need to

Thank you very much. But then we need to make sure that our residents feel safe even from perpetrators from outside of the community. So in thinking about the second challenge, just coming back to Councilor Simmons I feel as though we need the council if we're supposed to be creating policy to make people feel more safe in their neighborhoods. We need more feedback from the residents, from the neighborhoods where violence is more prevalent. And it sounds like you director dance, you just got started And you're talking to everyone, but we're making policy and mostly we're hearing from

White people and DSA people, people from outside of neighborhoods of violence. So what are we doing about this? And what sort of... Outreach. So I almost wonder whether we shouldn't be having some forums in neighborhoods where violence occurs before We bring, you know, develop additional policies. I agree again with Councilor Simmons that we need short-term and long-term plans, and it seems like you have some good short- term plans in place for the summer and maybe we need more, but it just seems like that outreach piece especially when we take such pride in outreach. I think we've got an outreach staff of 12, maybe it's bigger

but how are, I just wish we that community engagement preceded our Thank you. Engaging the community that hasn't shown up mostly for our six or seven hearings about ShotSpotter. But they're the people that really don't feel safe, that were at the community meeting July 9th. How can we engage them? So not only is that

I think that's an essential piece of this role. I was just thinking earlier, you know, I consider myself to be one I'm politically engaged and city-engaged of my friend group that I grew up. And I've only been to City Council meetings a handful of times, why? I know folks, and it feels odd being in this space. You felt like an outsider in the space, and that's over the course of my entire life. So I think there is a piece of it that, you know, I think the community would welcome all of us. All of y'all to I think folks are willing and able and ready to do that. So, I'll be out there. Come on with it.

Can you organize some meetings where we can be present too? I can absolutely do that. Because I think they have to be in the communities.

Yes, I agree.

So go ahead.

Through you, Madam Mayor. I think that makes a lot of sense. I would invite counselors to think about engaging with community members who are not here, not just about violence and violence prevention in different ways. So that's really important.

Thank you. So I'm just looking at the time. It's almost 830. In case you're wondering, regular meetings, we have Rule 10 that applies to regular meetings but there's no set time requirements with special meetings. With that said, I think it would be in best interest and practice of not trying to go until midnight as Councilor Simmons really wants. But I think, you know, so let's – I would suggest if you have a pressing question, I can go to you. But I would move on to the policy orders if not. Yes, Councilor Flaherty.

And I'll be very, very brief. So I appreciate what you're saying about sort of a central database where everybody can share information across the programs and... I know it's effective. I represented Corey Davis. I knew him when he got murdered, and I knew he was a guy that could have moved away from that life if he had the right influence in his life. And I see Officer Jones at the Y couple of times And he's exceptional. and I'm so happy that you say that in these meetings, you're talking about the kids who aren't on the services because I know the kids were in the boxing program. Those aren't the kids that are impact players at Cambridge. There are impact plays in Cambridge and my question really is, through that CBT rewiring therapy can we identify those 16 to 24 year old kids who are in need of assistance Everything.

You know, they're impoverished. Maybe they're not literate. Maybe their young parents maybe the court involved all of that is happening in their lives and is there a way through the safety net? And I know you look at Dr. Dance, I'm new too and I know your just here but In my mind, there isn't anything more important that we can do as a city government than protect our people and make sure that our future which is our youth is thriving. And I really do believe that if we invest now and I mean right now. And we create pathways. I mean, we're right down the street from Kendall Square. And when we get gun violence, we are going to lose a kid to a bullet rather than put him in a biotech that's gonna give them a career? It's mind-boggling to me, and I'm confronted with...

In privacy rights. But I'm a bigger believer in real people's lives and what can we do to make I know you're doing all you can. But can we identify and make an immediate sort of effort to get them involved in CBT or something other, some other program that's going to help them? To build those relationships like Officer Jones does every single day at the Y. Is there a way to do that right now?

To answer that, yes. And we are doing... You know, that was part of the reason why I was hired. Like you, I'm new to the role. I'm not new to The City. Cory got killed right in front of my best friend's house and around the corner from my house Sean Howard got killed. I went to elementary school with him and played Pop Warner with him my entire life. We are having folks that are out there and or Thank you for joining us. Yeah, Rocha has a wonderful model. The CBT model and I use it in individual therapy and group therapy

and there are organizations that do CBT coaching so that folks can use that. There's mental health first aid training Thank you for joining us. but I think pouring some of those resources into individuals that can have those conversations and having folks embedded and knowing the resources like ROCA and having that connection will allow us to do more of that. Rocha's committed to helping train folks too, and that's one of the wonderful things about Rocha. They've opened their doors to any organizations that we have, and we're actually having a joint meeting coming up with all of the folks we funded, and I'm going to invite some other folks there where we can share best practices and I definitely think that they have one of the best practices.

Thank you.

Yeah, just real quick. Through you, Madam Mayor, I appreciate what you commented there on therapy, CBT work and I also just want to acknowledge again going back to the material conditions because We cannot therapize people out of being unhoused. to a community that they can engage with, people that they share their thoughts with. So I appreciate that work and also don't want us to lose sight of the fact that material conditions matter People are just plainly struggling, and they need that support. So I'd love to do that work. I'd

So I'll just wrap up and say there's a lot of important information in all four of these communications. And, you know, I think This is just more, it's not a question but I think in supporting victims of gun violence I think something that has also come up is When this happens, what are we exactly doing as a city and what are the resources available? And I think having some kind of landing page within computer safety Here are the state resources. Here's which city departments are getting involved in response. We're doing it all, but it is a little like Thank you very much. On a motion by Councilor Nolan to place all four communications on file.

Yes, just the communications.

Just to place All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. All four communications have been placed on file. We'll move on to policy orders and we'll just go to each one of them So the first one is that the city manager is requested to take all necessary steps to temporarily restore and reactivate ShotSpotter within the areas of Cambridge previously covered by the system. This was followed by Councillor Simmons and Councillor Flaherty. You, Councillor Simmons, have the floor first.

Thank you. Through you, Madam Chair, to my colleagues. First I want to begin by acknowledging why this is a hard night. and by asking that we hold it with the seriousness it deserves. This is not about sound bites or special interest groups. It's about real people that live in the community that are feeling ignored, overlooked. This is not my first community meeting. I wish I could say it was going to be my last. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

When I look around, I mean, I think the police department is a model in human services too around hiring people of color, black people. Not people of I really applaud their efforts because one of the few departments that really kind of work at doing it. But even then, we don't do it far enough because if you really want to interrupt racism as people are saying Then it's important that black and brown people see black and Brown people in positions all through the organization. And that does not happen here. So when we're putting together that recipe to fix things, let's think about When we sit in a room of executives, there's a black and a brown person in there. If we're dispatching people to do a service in the community, particularly in the port... Black and Brown people are there.

When we're talking about doing resources, I hope we're going to hire Black and brown people because if you really want to do community engagement, I want to talk to a person more readily that looks like me. A good-willed, well-intended but don't look like me. And I don't need people's bleeding hearts. I need to be able to know and trust the people that are serving me, are willing to work with me So in the early hours of the Fourth of July, a young man who worked for the city lost his life to gun violence. He was one of ours and in our sadness All the well-intended really rings ten. Before I say a single word about the policy, I want his family to know that this council sees them. Do we see it?

The residents that are under this kind of stress and strife, yeah sure it's about housing and education but it's also about the discrimination that keeps us from having that housing. Keeping us getting that good education. We don't have to go far Look at our school budget. That is a testimony to inequality. Don't get me started. But I want his family to know that we do see them and that we grieve alongside them. I grieve along side because I know that feeling. Every one of us in this chamber wants the same thing, a city where no family has to bury their child. No mother has to put their son or daughter in the grave and think about what if we had done more? We are on the same side. So let us use our, I'm going to use my time tonight in the spirit of looking forward to what we owe the community, to what

When this council voted to discontinue ShotSpotter, every member cast their vote in good faith. I truly lean into that. We were responding to real concerns about effectiveness, about privacy, about relationships between our residents and the system. It's meant to protect them. And those concerns were legitimate then and I hope they still remain legitimate now. Nothing in this order asks anyone to pretend otherwise. What has changed is not the merit of any argument. What has change is what we have heard from our residents, what I have heard for my residents if anyone gives any credence and weight to that. When Cambridge came together at the Senior Center after the tragedy, so many members of our community rose to say that they wished Shot Spotter had not been taken away. And part of that was they felt disrespected because no one asked them. No one engaged them.

Not from behind, but side by side. And many of them said something that I've not been able to stop thinking about. They did not even know the city council had voted on it. Thank you very much.

Simmons, we have to come back to you.

No, no, let me just... You know what? That's the problem. Everything is... I don't talk that often Don't even start. I'm going to adhere to the rules. We've had a lovely conversation. I ran out of time and that's what's happening in my community We run out of time because no one has the patience to hear us.

We can come back second round. Councilor Flaherty and then I have Vice Mayor Azeem.

I'd like to second everything that my colleague, Councilor Simmons, has said. I know most of us attended that community meeting and it was striking for a number of reasons. It was striking because of the pain of the family, which was palpable The pain continued at the funeral and at the site. It was striking because of the call for technology People feel unsafe And there was a reaction when they were told they live in a city that's relatively safe. It was visceral and, from their perspective, very well warranted. and there is significant race issues and significant class issues in Cambridge, a tale of two cities.

And I think what we've got to do on the council examine these issues, evidence-based. Thank you very much. If there was 1% chance that ShotSpotter would have had a Cambridge police officer or emergency first responder be there with a less than 1% chance to save his life. It's worth it to me, and I'm sure it's worth that everybody in that neighborhood and to everyone in his family. And more importantly, even if that was an impossibility and we don't know the circumstances but I've heard it say well maybe there was nothing that could have been done

Great, but what could absolutely have happened is there was a report and this was generated from a ring camera from a resident. that three people left the scene in a white pickup, a Ram pickup. That could have been obtained immediately. A BOLO could have be put out, an APB could've been put out. All three individuals could have arrested and brought to justice. That opportunity was lost because it wasn't immediate response That young man, the father of a five-year-old boy lay in the gutter for what it's been reported for an hour. And you know I've been thinking about my own life and my own son, and what could have happened In my own life, through certain events that have happened to me recently and what would have happened in my son's life going forward.

And I haven't been able to shake the thought of Mr. Batiste's child and, you know... Look. I'm the first to protect people's individual privacy rights but if there is a balancing test to be done In this instance, considering these facts and the changed circumstances that we're now well aware of and the tenor and the tone of the people who came to that community meeting and who have spoken to me. individually and personally, then those changed circumstances require us to reactivate Schatz Barter now. That's what our residents want And with all due respect, that's what we're obligated to do. I yield.

Vice Mayor Azeem and then I have Councilor McGovern and then Councilor Sperino-Wheeler.

You'll have to come back to me for a second round to finish this, but I have a fairly different take than what most of my colleagues had said today and what I had as an opinion when I first got elected. When I first got elected within the first month, I made a comment that got me into a lot of trouble. I said one of the leading causes of death and injuries for young adults in our city was from car crashes. And that is true nationally. But then, Nico, Emac and Isaac Jablo got really angry at me. and they were like, you know Berhan everyone talks about bike safety all the time but in our city young people are also hurt by gun violence. And I was like well of course everyone cares about gun violence there's just not a division that's why we don't do it. And then my first year here, the first summer People got shot. Nothing changed. My second summer here, people got shot Nothing changed.

And I slowly started to get it, but I'm embarrassed, very embarrassed to say that it wasn't until my third summer here when someone got shot in front of my house as I was watching that I got it All of a sudden, there was a girl who was shot and was bleeding out in front of me. And I was faced with a choice. Do you take care of her or do you call 911? All of the sudden, it wasn't just like obviously you call 9-1-1. There were real tradeoffs. All of a sudden, me and my neighbor who got a bullet through their house was like we should do a GoFundMe to help pay for their medical bills. And we were like of course the community is very generous it would be supportive But the mom of the girl who got shot was like, I don't know if I want to do this. And we had to kind of push her into this and we were like why not? The community is very supportive Well as soon as their names went public they got a note on their door Not of support but that said don't be a rat All of a sudden, they were afraid. Their main fear was that someone was going to come after them for saying what they did publicly. And then it made sense to me

that how Charlene Holmes happened, where everyone knows who her killer is. But people just won't say the name. And it is because people do shootings in our city. Because they genuinely believe that they can get away with it. Because people won't be a rat, because they can threaten them. And they think that because it has happened in our state. I think that we have a lot of empathy for everyday people who are not involved. You don't want to have surveillance when you're going around. We have a We sometimes have empathy for the victim, right? Like they were hurt or their family members were hurt. But there was also empathy that we need to have for the people in our city who are just sitting there afraid that they're going and so when that mom had that post-it note put on her mailbox all of a sudden I understood why you would want more police in our city and why you

And then I understood what Nico and Isaac had said to me, which is our standard for public safety, for street safety. This is different than it is for shootings. We don't say, you never hear. Well we're actually safer and we have less car crashes than other cities in America. Never heard. There's actually widespread support for speeding cameras, for red light cameras, For bus lane enforcement. We have no problem with surveillance when it comes to making sure that rules of the road are followed. But then you go and talk about public safety, and it's like, well actually we're safer than most cities. That's really hard to talk to someone who has just been shot and their family. I supported heart, I supported care and I still think that they do good work. I think that poverty is a problem and it can lead to dark places. But I also think that rich people who have all the access and all the resources can also commit crime. That it's not just about poverty. It is also that sometimes there are just bad people who want to hurt other people

and that it is really hard because that case of that person who did a shooting in front of my house had actually been in programs with the city, had actually had a job was actually doing financially fine and actually after they got out, the first thing they did was again in front of my house in a corner where there was not a camera. So I had to shoot it again and testify again They committed domestic violence and sexual assault. And I would not go to that woman and say that actually the reason that that happened to you was because the person who did that just did not have enough support, and they had a traumatic childhood. I think it is really, really complicated. And really, you know, I think we ignore the details until it happens to you. And, you know, I agree actually with which is the reason that I didn't vote on keeping ShotSpotter. I voted present and I don't think we should have gotten rid of it but I don' t think it's the best technology. But in this case, maybe it's right that it was on fireworks mode and there were lower odds.

Maybe the injuries were so severe that you could not have saved them. But if it was my kid, my dad, my fiance out there and you told me there was a 5% chance that they could have been saved. Well, that is everything to me. I have a lot to say on the merits of the policy orders, which I will do in my second time. But I just had to share my feelings and my experience and how I got to where I am.

We will go to Councilor McGovern, and then I have Councilor Serena Wheeler, Councilor Nolan, and Councilor Al-Zubi.

Thank you Madam Mayor through you. Thank you Vice Mayor for that. And I do want to start off by again expressing my condolences to the Baptista family. So I am very sorry for their loss. In terms of technology in general, I am not against the use of technology. I voted for the cameras in Central Square. I voted for license plate readers for traffic violations, not for Flock because my issue with Flock was more about the company and how that data was being used and who it was being shared with more so than the technology itself. But I am obviously concerned, as many are, about how that technology is used.

So I think if you look at the central square cameras, as the Commissioner said, we control that data Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You've got the study out of Chicago about response times. Even folks who support it agree that it's flawed.

Many cities, this isn't just a Cambridge thing, many cities that have a lot more gun violence in Cambridge have moved away from ShotSpotter Thank you very much. by the violence and where the technology is located. And we didn't do that well enough here, and I hold myself responsible for my part in that. I completely agree. Just tonight, for example, I went into the hall

and asked two women from Newtown Court who spoke at the community meeting very passionately if they were going to speak tonight, and they said no because they didn't feel supported and they were hurt. Thank you very much. On the issue of addressing the root causes of violence, yes, yes. Better funding for mental health, housing, addressing poverty, creating more opportunities for young people, fixing our two-tiered education system and so much more. But I feel like tonight, we were kind of missing each other in this conversation. This became a conversation of we should either support prevention and intervention or support technology. and I don't know why this has to be an either or conversation.

We have to support prevention in intervention, and I think everybody agrees for that regardless of where they stand on ShotSpotter. And there are with the right safeguards and controls Technology can be helpful. It does not prevent, track spotter does not preventing crime from happening we know that cameras don't do that either but they could help in solving those crimes and bringing some closure to the family So if we can find a way, and I think we can, to put those safeguards in place, to make sure that we're not collaborating with ICE, to I think we can find a way to do this and balance this. So, um... I think we all agree that Cambridge, that we want Cambridge to be a safe community for everyone.

It's not good enough that some of us feel safe while others do not and so I want us to work together on addressing this massive issue Thank you very much. Reinstate ShotSpotter operation until the city has completed a robust, inclusive public process and the other order says 90 days. So you are not suggesting to bring ShotSpodder back indefinitely? You were talking about temporarily until we can include the people who have been left out of this conversation. Is that correct? Thank you.

We will go ahead to Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler and then I have Councilor Nolan.

Thanks, I'm gonna ask some questions that I had sent over ahead of time about ShotSpotter to try and get some data. The first one was in 2025 there were four shootings in Cambridge that resulted in injuries. How many of them, those four shootings were in the shot spotter range and how many of those shootings did Shot Spotter pick up?

To you Madam Mayor. Thank you for the question. Three of the four shootings with victims were in the shot spot at coverage area, none of the three resulted in alerts because Two were inside buildings and it only, shot spotted detection only works outside. And one was a drive-by where the firing of the gun came from inside the vehicle which would have affected the sound as well. The fourth incident was on Clifton Street and that was outside the ShotSpotter area.

Okay, thank you. And ShotSpoter as it says in the contract is suppressed for a 48-hour window around July 4th and New Year's Eve. That came up a lot in the discussion of this shooting On July 24, 2025, a year ago there was a shooting in Cambridge. It wasn't one of the ones that resulted in an injury but on that shooting on July 4th, 2025 did ShotSpotter detect that shooting?

That particular shooting on July 4th, 2025? No.

Thank you. And in 2025 how many total times did ShotSpotter trigger an alert both for gunshots and other sounds?

I don't think that was on there.

I did submit that ahead of time.

You mean total?

Total, yeah. How many alerts were triggered in 2025?

In 2025 there were 11 instances of shots fired in Cambridge And of the 11, 59 were in the Cambridge jurisdiction. The other two were at Hobbit Square MBTA. So seven of the nine shots fired within... The Cambridge Police Jurisdiction were in the shot spotter coverage area and three result in an alert. The other four were inside a house, one inside a car, and one was the 4th of July.

We don't know how many total alerts there were for things.

I don't have that information in front of me.

That would be helpful to know because it is a question of how many times is this being triggered? We have a lot of data from other places saying ShotSpotter picks up a lot things that are not gunshots, yeah.

Yeah, no I can get that information for you but we did get information from ShotSpotter that it is not suppressed for the 48 hours around the holidays. The algorithm is adjusted according to noise levels and extra technicians are Put in place for listening for gunshots during the 4th of July holidays as well as the New Year's Eve and on events such as those two, the ambient volume rises. and the system relies on the technology, it switches over to the technology to filter out other noises. The system is constantly fluctuating based on ambient noise levels and which would, you know, at 4 a.m., ShotSpotter would have been using regular detection with no suppression.

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. No, I think it's helpful to just hear some of the answers about it not picking up the shootings from 2025, about it missing the shooting on July 4th. We want to ground this in real evidence. Things that actually work, and not just to make a political point. We have more than 30 surveillance technologies in operation that the city council has approved. More than a dozen of those technologies are in use by the police department alone. This isn't about technology, I've advocated for technology like red light cameras that would save lives is to me how dangerously inaccurate this technology is. It reduces response times to real violence, And like other counselors have talked about in the situations they live in, I also live around the corner from where a young person was shot and killed. I live three blocks from where Syed Faisal was shot by a Cambridge police officer. This is a young brown man having a mental health crisis in my neighborhood

is not something I'm going to relitigate right now, but ShotSpotter makes it more likely that we have another tragedy like this one because of how dangerously inaccurate it is. Because so many of the things it thinks are gunshots are not anything close to being gunshots. We should not be putting residents in this situation where they can just be going about their daily lives, be around a loud noise and have someone say this was a gunshot and send the police racing towards them. We also shouldn't be putting our police department or city employees in that situation So the last piece here is around this question of community engagement and about how we've done the community engagement. I just want to turn that on its head. We never did community engagement before putting this up, We're getting a lot of suggestions that we need to do more community engagement before taking technology down. How come we never did any community engagement for putting it up? Shouldn't that be the first thing, shouldn't we have done the community engagement or we put that out? There's another policy order tonight. Should we do more committee engagement before that? I don't understand.

We will now move to Councilor Nolan and then Councilor Zusy.

So we're going through and just asking either questions and or eventually. Okay, and this is the first round of at least a couple. So just want to get it clear. So I really appreciate this really hard discussion, and I think all three of these policy – four of these on the level of policing, on the specific shot spotter, on programs to address safety. And I think that's true wherever you live in the city, what your race is, ethnicity, financial status So I think we're split on what approach is most effective. We do share the goal of a very safe city where everyone feels safe, so I'm glad we all understand that and and everything I do and everything all my colleagues do are in that spirit of wanting that one goal. The programs which can be effective, the one stat we heard tonight about an 80% reduction in juvenile arrests really represents hope.

and yet as Vice Mayor Azeem noted there are also crimes that happen in people for whom programs have not worked and we need to get those people off the streets and out of our city so they can't hurt us further. I do have a couple of questions, which is Just something the community is really talking a lot about. In the case of tragic murders, we've heard a lot including with the ACLU saying that response time from their All of their data across the country has not made any difference in people being able to be saved given shot spotter. And I know it's very difficult to assess. But regardless of how one stands on these technologies, do we have a sense of whether shot spotter could have made a difference in saving Xavier's life?

Commissioner? Through you, Madam Mayor. First and foremost, obviously our thoughts remain with the Bautista family and all families that are impacted with gun violence. I understand why many have asked whether shots bought up would have changed the outcome that evening. Based on what we know about that incident, there is no indication The shooting from occurring, but it's important to distinguish between preventing violence and helping law enforcement respond to violence once shots are fired. Those are two different things ShotSpotter is not designed to predict or prevent. It's an acoustic detection system that alerts officers when gunfire is detected, often providing information within seconds.

Its purpose is to improve situational awareness and it helps officers locate incidents more quickly, identify victims who may not be able to call 911, and preserve evidence that might otherwise be lost. It serves very much as an investigative tool that provides timely objective information to support criminal investigations. Now, when we talk about offices going to false 911, I mean false shot spotter activations. We, just like any other police department are required by statutory law state and federal case law to respond to any report of potential violence with a proportional response meaning the available force options for the officers The activation of ShotSpotter...

could provide a reasonable perception of danger and the potential presence of a firearm for the responding officers, but the activation alone does not justify a use of force. Before officers prepare or utilize a force option, the law says we must consider the overall totality of the circumstances. The activation of shot spotter alerts officers to the potential presence of the firearm, but is not conclusive proof by any means. It assists officers by alerting them to the Thank you for watching. Without additional facts or information, it would be contrary to CPD training and nationally accepted police practices for officers to simply pull out their firearms due to a shot spot or activation.

I'll stop there.

Thank you.

Thanks, yeah. Given the tragic circumstances, my understanding is there's a very big difference if it's instant death and not.

I had Councilor Zusy.

Thank you, Chair Siddiqui. So I have a few questions through you. I thought it was removed, so can it be reinstated and will Homeland Security still foot the bill?

The technology can be reinstated however there are other communities that are looking to expand their coverage using our funding allocation.

So we would need to pay like $50,000 for the ShotSpotter for three...for the summer months.

No, we wouldn't. We have never paid for ShotSpotter and we would continue not to have to pay.

So we could reinstate it for the summer without expense? Thank you very much. McGovern, you were brilliant. I really appreciated your testimony it's not an either or we want to invest in prevention and we want to do intervention, and we wanna fund technology that makes communities feel safe. I feel like this is about I'm not convinced, well let me go back. I voted present about the vote about ShotSpotter. I went into that council meeting planning to vote against ShotSpodder

And then I became really frustrated by my colleagues because Councilor Simmons and Councilor Flaherty, and the city manager and Commissioner Wells were begging for us not to make a decision until after the community meeting, about the shooter on Memorial Drive in May, and I just couldn't believe we weren't going to hear from the community. Before we made this important decision. So I think, again, talking to the community is absolutely essential. I will support this policy order. I agree with Councilor McGovern that we need to create guardrails Again, I'm not convinced that ShotSpotter is effective. I don't believe it listens to our conversations and reports us to ICE

But, you know, I'm convinced that it often gives false positives which are highly problematic that might make a community feel less safe. Thank you very much. And then we can remove it in the fall after community outreach. Thank you very much. But if it makes the community that's impacted most by violence feel safer, Thank you so much for joining us.

are when violence generally happens. And then let's reevaluate the picture, then, after we have done robust community outreach to communities of color. Thank you. I yield.

So I think we've heard from everyone except myself and Councilor Al-Zubi. Councilor, would you like to go?

Happy to defer to you if you want to go first or

I had just two questions based on what you said, Councilor Zusy. I think if it's possible to hear from the solicitor on the procedural piece I think we touched briefly on the surveillance technology ordinance and I think it would be helpful to understand the process here. My understanding was that staff could request approval through the Submission of a new STIR, would the same process be required for a temporary reinstatement? I know we followed the process. So what does it exactly look like here? Is the policy order enough?

Thank you. To you, Madam Mayor. So as the Council knows under our surveillance ordinance generally if staff wants to use a new in the form of a surveillance technology impact report. So that would be an option for staff to come back before the council with a new STIR report requesting approval. I think the other option that is available to the council through this policy order I'm just trying to make sure, a renewal of the prior vote to stop using the technology. So as the council knows in our rules we have

Reconsideration, a rule on reconsideration. And that rule says that you have 36 hours after the vote's taken to file for reconsideration, and then the vote gets taken up at the next meeting. or the council frequently suspends the rules to move reconsideration right at the time of the initial vote to have finality. And that rule serves to make the actions of the council final for this term of the Council as the Council is currently formed. Robert's Rules of Order also, though, talk about renewal of a vote. And there are certain times that a vote can come up again outside of the reconsideration process and to continue Read from Robert's Rules.

If a motion is made and disposed of without being adopted, is later allowed to come before the assembly after being made again by any member in essentially the same connection. The motion is said to be renewed. Renewal of motions is limited by the basic principle that an assembly cannot be asked to decide the same or substantially the same question twice during one session except through a motion to reconsider a vote. So that's the concept, that if you've already gone through reconsideration, you can't bring the same motion up again. But Roberts Rules also says, a previously considered motion may become a substantially different question through a significant change in the wording or because of a difference in the time or circumstances in which it is proposed.

and such a motion may thus be in order when it could not otherwise be renewed. So I think that's within the discretion of you Madam Mayor as the Chair whether Thank you. bring back ShotSpotter for this time period would have to come through another stir on the manager's agenda.

Okay, my second question I'll just get this in is about the public process piece. The policy order talks about a robust and inclusive public process and I think we've heard from the communications department in the past about their approach to engagement around kind of council decisions and counselor policies or initiatives. If I remember correctly, the framing was that the city does engage on Council doesn't engage on council issues after decisions have been made with the aim of informing community members, but there's a lot of sensitivity around engagement seeking input and decisions that haven't been made yet. Given that this matter is back before the council, I'm just curious around how you could speak to how this part of the policy order would be carried out. Because it says temporary and it says process. What would that look like?

Through you Mayor Siddiqui, I think it would be good for us to have some kind of conversation just to make sure that I would just put forward some initial thoughts. traditionally we've done community engagement by holding more meetings within the community that could be a normal path A second option would be to form a... Task Force or Temporary Border Commission that would seek representation. And we could specifically look to include a variety of voices I think there's some advantages in having a more facilitated discussion where people can feel more connected and relationally Thank you very much.

A third option that I think we've discussed before, A model for civic assemblies where what you actually do is select randomly a group of Thank you very much. We would try to balance that, but I think the desire there is also to think about how we bring normal residents together to actually, again, meet together be in relationship with each other. They can hear from advocates but it ends up being a very different model than when you When you create a board or commission that is actually bringing all the advocates together and then expecting them to find a compromise, it is sometimes different if you bring together

regular residents, have the advocates come and speak and then have those people decide. So those are just some initial thoughts. I mean, I think there's certainly different models and there's a lot more detail that we could talk through but I think this is obviously A really difficult issue within our community. I think we can certainly see the divide within the council body as well and open also to other ideas.

I will go to Councilor Al-Zubi.

Through you Madam Mayor, I first want to just acknowledge the reality that we owe our community more than weaponizing grief Xavier Bautista was a young man, loving community member and a recent father. And before this work in any of the titles we hold, we are neighbors. And like so many of our residents I'm also sitting with the anger grief and heartbreak And that is precisely why I've been incredibly disturbed by how quickly his life has become a political opportunity for ShotSpotter. Almost immediately, even before proper investigations, calls resurfaced to bring back ShotSpotter, which is the very surveillance technology that the council, after years of engagement – you might not agree with the engagement, but after years When a community is mourning, our responsibility as electeds is to lead with integrity and listen, not weaponize someone's grief to revive a policy debate for one's own political agenda. Thank you very much.

One, ShotSpotter's contract states it has to use different techniques in the 48 hours before during and after the holidays of which Independence Day is won. So it's more likely to be Unreliable than its baseline unreliability. Two, there's mixed evidence on whether ShotSpotter actually improves response time for emergency responders with research saying that with ShotSpoter it does improve time and with others saying without ShotSporter it improves times. lending it inconclusive. Third, ShotSpotter doesn't reduce gun violence. We can all agree on that one. Fourth, there's lots of evidence including our own cities that show that ShotSpots unreliably capture sounds leading to more false positives than actual gunshot detection Fifth, research in our own city data show that there is limited evidence that it leads to more arrests or improved clearance rates. Our city has experience with the technology. During the year ShotSpotter was deployed, shootings still occurred, families still lost loved ones and cases still went unsolved. In fact based on the annual 2024 report from the police department

from the start of ShotSpotter, which was July 2014 to the end of 2023. There were ten gunshot-related murders in our city during that time period, and an overwhelming seven are still ongoing. We had ShotSpotter in all of those years. and for the two that pleaded guilty, we don't know if ShotSpotter helped in those cases. And then third a police officer killed Faisal So in other words, the existence of the technology has never guaranteed any sort of arrest prosecutions or justice. And in fact, the Bautista family had suffered a loss 12 years ago on just about the same date a few streets down. We had ShotSpotter then, it was at the start of it and that case is still unsolved today. But put the data aside for a second. The reality is on principle a just city should not require people to surrender privacy in order to have safety and that is alleged safety Our responsibility as policymakers is not to get trapped into deciding which right deserves greater protection. It's to pursue policies that safeguard both.

should not be asked to trade away civil liberties for the promise of security, especially when there is no clear evidence that doing so will deliver the outcomes they have been promised. Now, do we really think ShotSpotter is effective or are we so convinced by the idea that any surveillance and even worse, ShotSpoter specifically, is the answer to our deepest systemic inequities? I don't hold any hate in my heart towards you. I hold the pain with you. But when you turn a community meeting into a political opportunity for ShotSpotter, when you incite fear in a place of vulnerability I'm lost in that conversation.

Councilor Al-Zubi, keep it to the policy order.

That's fine, but I just want to point that out and acknowledge it because we couldn't have an authentic conversation at that community meeting. I will entertain conversations on technology when and only when we have adequate support and funding for community-based organizations in the Community Safety Department They deserve an honest chance to do the work sustainably. And then I'm willing to engage on technology. So, I'm trying to shift the conversation over the decades and decades of work in which we've returned to simple solutions. And I'm happy to engage with those. I believe that he deserves way more than that. And I'm open to working on that with you. I don't think that you will be, but well, I'm here and I want to do that work and I'm going to be showing up with you, Dr. Kwame. So I yield, but I won't support it.

So, Councilor Al-Zubi yields. We'll go ahead.

Yes? Just a quick follow up too because I actually want to try to write this.

Okay, Councilor Al-Zubi exercises her charter right. So if Councilor Al-Zubi is exercising her charter I will move on to policy order Number two, and because the Charter Right is exercised this will come back before us at the August 3rd meeting. Madam Mayor?

Yes, Councilor Simmons. In the spirit of collaboration I'll try to write the rest of the policy orders.

So, Councilor Simmons has moved to exercise all the policy orders that were before us. So we cannot have any business on those per the rules. So the only thing that's left for tonight, folks, is to adjourn. But I see a hand up before we do that. There's a motion on adjournment by Vice Mayor Azeem.

I had a point of order. Could we continue the discussion, even if there's not a policy order like we were before?

So per the rules, I think that going to the solicitor, Call had been broad and I think there was kind of a vague mention of Council discussion following staff updates, including the discussion of the use of technology in public safety initiatives. But I think because all of it will if it relates back to the POs, that's not germane. Solicitor.

Thank you to you, Madam Mayor. I agree that The agenda includes council discussion on this broad topic that includes discussion about technology, but it couldn't be about what the policy order is asking.

Vice Mayor?

Could I make a comment? I just had something I wanted to come back to. Yes, go ahead So I just wanted to say, I think that like, you know, I really just have a profound difference of opinion. Like there was just recently a death in Boston streets and everyone gathered around City Hall and said, like, hey, this is a moment where we want to reprioritize safe streets in our city. And I think that it is fair to do the same here. And these moments are galvanizing moments. People don't pay attention to issues that matter until there is an event of loss so often because that ends up being a moment of like this out of all of our priorities should become a priority in this moment. And I will just say that, like, I voted present last time and a lot of the conversation has been because I feel like actually I stick with what I said last time which is I'm not convinced that particular technology is the best technology,

It is valuable to have that discussion because whenever I have brought up conversations about like, oh could we do this or that? But also, if we were just going to prioritize safety, what are the options on the table that perhaps there was not enough community buy-in, and I do think that there are other solutions that work as well. Thank you.

McGovern, and then Councilor Zusy. Again, we have to vote on the motion to adjourn. Please don't speak to the policy orders.

Thank you Madam Mayor. And thank you for your leadership over this month, especially with all this because I know you've been getting inundated and I appreciate you. You know, I've been around politics for a long time and I know that we are A political body. But really my plea to all of us, those who support ShotSpotter and those who don't, really is around sort of let's not Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Just look at us tonight, the nine of us. We are all good people, smart people who feel passionately. When I listen to one of my colleagues talk about how awful ShotSpotter is, I'm like, yeah, I agree. And then I hear someone talk about the impact of not having ShotSpoter and I'm This is complicated and difficult, and I just hope – you know, I can anticipate now the emails that are going to be, oh, you flipped your vote or you didn't do this. Can we not do that? Thank you very much. You know, and I agree with, you know, I didn't say anything at the community meeting. You know? I didn t want to make it about politics. I didn d want to

We've got to just create more space. and how it is not effective. I think that I just hope we continue to work together and not I realize that August 3rd is coming up really quickly.

But I think it would be very convenient and appropriate if the city, with its outreach workers reached out to the neighborhoods that have more violence between now and then, and talked with them about ShotSpotter and feeling safe and what would make them feel more safe. because I feel as though we're making this decision in the absence of hearing from the most significant users. The people that that are most impacted and are not feeling safe. So if there is any way during this period that the city could do that outreach. It would inform the conversation on August 3rd, and I think it would help us to come to an understanding and to a decision. Thank you.

Thanks. No, actually I think the question about community engagement and doing more outreach to communities and you know I think there's a lot of questions about how we define impacted community in which people of color were listening to and which people have color or not is a really important one here but that outreach I think is important and I hope if the city were to do that outreach they would also include how do you think of the community safety department? Do you want more violence prevention efforts, affordable housing, mental health care services alongside and so forth. If it were just about one thing, that's maybe less helpful. But you talk about public safety and the broader aspects and the other parts that we're part of the meeting tonight. That would be really interesting to engage the community around. See you back.

Councilor Nolan.

Thanks. And not to address the specifics, but the overall question I agree we need to make sure in the community at large that we role model Thank you very much. But so often in this area, too, there are parts of the city where people never once ever think about waking up to gun violence. And there's other parts of The City where it's an ever present in their mind that it could happen at any moment. We have to live with that, and that's part of what we're trying to address. But I recognize that since the council discussion is on overall public safety, everything we've talked about earlier today with the communications is about the programs we want and hope will move us forward. And yet, starting with all of the work that the city does,

There's a lot of pain and fear, and people in this city living a very different life. I could ask my kids. They grew up here. You know, did they ever see a gun? Did they ever go to a house with a gun and not tell you there's lots of kids in the city for whom that answer is very different than other kids in the city. So, the more we can hold that and understand as I think all of us have pledged to do no matter what or where you come down Thank you. Honor that in everyone in this room, but also everyone in the community to understand that we may end up in different places of how to address it. But I totally honor that we're all having the same goal in mind.

Is everyone who would like to speak spoken? So, on a motion by Vice Mayor Azeem to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We are adjourned. Good night everyone.