The mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts has released a public safety plan in response to the shooting of a pregnant woman on a public transit bus that resulted in the death of her baby.
Named “Ezekiel’s Plan” in memory of the unborn child, Mayor Joshua Garcia proposes hiring 13 additional police officers, adding foot and bike patrols, installing a citywide surveillance camera system, but also increasing rental housing inspections and addressing other quality-of-life complaints.
Garcia estimates the initial cost to implement the plan will be $1 million.
WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Mayor Garcia about his public safety plan.
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia
It's a million dollars to get it off the ground to launch it, and what we have, and it's going to be well over a million, but what this does is allow us to take a combination of revenue sources available to us and, and the flexibility we need to get going. So it's a comprehensive approach that's really focused on several key factors. So, proactive police enforcement strategies, enhanced surveillance, hiring additional officers. So, you know, it is heavy on the enforcement side. And that'll include citywide cameras, making, not just hiring the additional officers, but getting bike patrol, foot patrol, and also putting together a special task force focused on knocking down crime and neighborhoods. But the other side of this because you have to, it's important that enforcement goes hand in hand with with compassion work. And so we want to make sure that, you know, as we're doing what we can, on the police enforcement side, that were stepping up our our ability to better respond to quality of life challenges that are going on and neighborhoods. So, you know, we're going to see an increase, getting an extra inspector and the Board of Health Department, making sure that the Board of Health, the building department and fire department, you know, continuing their work as they work together to do what we call flex quad work, where on weekends, they go black by block addressing code infractions, graffiti overgrowth conditions of buildings, and trying to get property owners and in the neighborhoods to address those issues that we find where there's crime, where there's crime going on. So it's, you know, it kind of leads to it almost. And then also doing, we're trying to build a community response model we've talked to, we've been talking about it with the community for a very long time. So what I'm thinking here, and this plan specifically is establishing a division out of the mayor's office that's focused on tenant and neighborhood protection strategies. And then also working with community partners in strengthening efforts for neighborhood Outreach and Engagement youth programming. So it's it's comprehensive, it's it's trying to not be so it's proactive policing, but not, you know, we are a compassionate community and compassion does come with quality of life challenges, and it's important that we balance both.
Paul Tuthill
Are you concerned about over policing areas of Holyoke that may be heavily policed right now?
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia
You know, we I do what I can to always acknowledge those concerns, because they're very legitimate concerns. And so here, we're talking about policing, people see what's happening across the country. And what we what I try to do is to make sure that as we go forward and execute my expectation, our community as far as accountability is concerned, no matter what department we're talking about, because nobody likes enforcement, you know, the Board of Health enforces, and I get the calls, building department for, for I get the calls police department you get. So it's always you know, and they're legitimate concerns. And, you know, what I do is I enforce the laws. But as we go forward, enforce the laws, we have to be very mindful that acknowledge those concerns that people do bring up, and it's a few people, the majority, there's a majority of the city of Holyoke that very much appreciate the the enforcement direction at the same time. You know, I tried it, I try my best to be sure that we're educating the public on what we can be doing differently to better mitigate issues. But here I have a problem where a woman riding on a public funded transportation caught a bullet in her baby's chest,unborn child's chest dies. So it's really tough to just kind of take a set, seat, a back seat and say, Hey, it's okay. Neighborhoods, you don't need the necessary enforcement measures, because you have some folks that don't agree with policing. I can't do that. There has to be some level of accountability and accountability. I will bring. The biggest issue though, however, for any mayor of any community, especially a community of this size of only 40,000 people is, you know, there's only so much I can do to tackle the problems of the world. You know, the real problems. You know, we're talking about gun violence. You know, we're still waiting for our state and federal government to work together and take these guns off our streets, talking about opioid and drugs. You know, I'm fighting a billion dollar industry with a million dollars. And so I can only do so much as a local government to fight the drug problems going on in our community. There's a housing crisis, you know, from low threshold housing, to affordable housing, to workforce housing, to market rate housing, you know, you got a lot of people that are in need, and mental health problems, too. And each of these areas, somehow, some way, and we're a compassionate city, we're a much more progressive city than so called progressive communities when other communities say no, we don't want that in our backyard. Holyoke says, come here. And because we're so compassionate, it does come with quality of life challenges. And you know, how we respond to those challenges, we get put to the test a lot. And as an administration, I always set the expectation for my departments, hey, go forward with enforcement because the public? We we do have we have a responsibility to community safety. But always be mindful on best practices on how to mitigate and de escalate issues concerns, so that we're proactive. So yeah, I mean, I think there's still going to be some people that are on the, that are going to share a concern about over policing. But, you know, when you downtown Holyoke, the median household income is less than $17,000 a year. And my office is in the middle of this neighborhood, and they come here, and they don't say we're afraid of police. They're saying where are the police? And I think that this predominantly Latino community deserves just as much safety than more affluent communities.
Paul Tuthill
Mayor, what's the timetable now for implementing this plan? I know you have to bring it to the city council first.
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia
Well, yeah, so there are a number of revenue sources that we've identified that are going to require council approval. So there is a special council meeting, currently being planned for the date hasn't been set yet, but it's, we're looking at it might be potentially November nine. The Council, I don't think are going to approve it that night. They'll send it to committee. And from Committee, it'll go back to the full council for a final vote. So we're hoping by the end of the calendar year, and so once this funding is available, I'm hoping that it'll give me enough to mitigate for the next 12 months. And remember, it's a lunch so million dollars, you know, it's going to help us get other funding sources and grants and support. But again, it's the flexibility I need right now to get things off the ground rather than wait for those resources to come in.
