Bloomington is proposing to form another resident-led group on public safety with the Community Advisory on Public Safety (CAPS) Commission.
The CAPS Commission will try to seek out marginalized members of the public to come up with better ways to make them feel safe.
Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith is a co-sponsor of the legislation. She said gathering information from folks who don’t normally have a voice is the best strategy.
“We need to move forward. We need to show the community that we are listening. That we know there are problems and we’re going to do something about it," Piedmont-Smith said. "And to do something about it, we first have to hear from people who don’t have a seat at the table. I think that’s what this commission does.”
The purpose of the commission is to reach out to people of color and people of various socioeconomic backgrounds to meet a set of outlined goals:
- Hear from people who have been left out of the discussion about public safety
- Review programs used successfully in other communities and see if they could apply
- Discuss new, local ideas or adaptations of programs that could improve public safety
- Report to City Council and Mayor's administration in time to possibly incorporate new tools for public safety into the 2022 budget request
- Have ongoing evaluations of public safety in the city
"I think it's clear that not everyone gets a chance to speak," councilmember and commission co-sponsor Kate Rosenbarger said. "So, I think the best mechanism we [the city] have is to create a commission."
A few members of the public safety committee said they worry the commission will overlap with other citizen-led groups within the city.
Councilmember Susan Sandberg said it’s difficult for her to distinguish how this commission will be different from both the Racial Equity Task Force and the Future of Policing Task Force that were formed by the city last week.
READ MORE: Bloomington To Create Two New Racial Equality Task Forces
“My point being these things do take time in thinking through them," Sandberg said. "Who’s going to staff them? Is this just a duplication of other efforts that we have underway?”
Councilmember Jim Sims said he doesn’t know if another new commission is needed to address these issues.
“You create safe spaces so that people that don’t feel safe can be made to feel safe as best we can," Sims said. "And I don’t think just forming a commission does that.”
Without a clear consensus from the Public Safety Committee Wednesday night, the proposal will be discussed further at its next meeting Nov. 12.
If the committee passes a vote in two weeks, the CAPS Commission will move to city council for final approval.
