We’re ready to go standby.
>> Welcome back to Houston
newsmakers and to a friend of
this program right to make
aerials the president and CEO
of crime stoppers of Houston
good to see you I’m glad that
you came on accepted my
invitation to come on you said
the crime stoppers at leading.
Public safety nonprofit such a
very close relationships with
law enforcement being able to
see both sides of would now is
a contentious relationship.
What’s crime stoppers as steps
to kind of bring the sides
together.
>> Well first off thank you for
having me you know I love
spending any time with you, but
I are all summarize said and
done. One word balance I think
what we’re doing is in feeling
such deep emotion across this
country very valid emotion.
We are possibly to create
solutions that may not be in
the best interests in the long
run now does that mean police departments don’t mean reform
departments don’t mean reform
they do and actually everybody
agrees we’re all on the same
page there. But we don’t want
to lose balance like and
looking at cities across
America that looks like some of
the proposals are purely
punitive in nature. Targeting
law enforcement I don’t think
that’s the solution and
ultimately it will hurt
communities in the long run.
>> One of the things I know
that the wording makes a see
the signs calling for defunding
police that means one thing to
one percent but it means
something altogether different
for those who are proponents of
change at all Mister Lamine taking money totally away from
taking money totally away from
police maybe just read is
redistributing it.
>> And in that way and I think
it depends where you are so you see parts of Seattle where they
see parts of Seattle where they
literally want to different
police they don’t want our
ports meant present. Their but
across and what I fear is that
because those communities are
loud you’re seeing City
Council’s actually feel
pressure to respond and given
to those requests but we’ve got to remember that we have to do
to remember that we have to do
what’s in the best interest of
the community on first and as a
whole that keeps saying they
didn’t wait we’re taking over
we’re going to end all Sir
social services we’re going to
strong arm the community law
enforcement only responds to
requests that they are told to
respond to by policymakers the
and based on community need so
we have to be careful about
where these narratives and
where these conversations are
going. This define the police
should should we be moving some
funds away from law enforcement
and injecting them into social
services, maybe the question
should be should we just be
injecting funds into social
services and they can be 2
separate issues and I really
wish they’d be handled
separately.
>> You know you so you talked
about communities, so what
would you suggest to people who
really have an interest in
making a difference. How would
you suggest they go about the
community involvement to make a
true difference in changing
some of those policies.
>> Well listen we’ve been
around for 40 years this year
is our 40th year of service and
I can tell you in 2013 when I
took the program over it was
hard for me to get people
engaged until they became a
victim of crime it was very
hard for me to get them to
attend our meetings or hear
what’s going on now Houston’s
become such an active city and
we have a long list of
community members who say no we
want to be involved. We want to
make sure they’re educated so
in some areas we need to call
policymakers in some areas we
need to have a stronger
presence in schools and some
areas we need to be have a
stronger force and communities.
So there are nanny ways we can
come together to bridge gaps in
other areas it’s about bringing
law enforcement community
members together a round table
discussions, maybe even just
for baseball game. There are
many ways to bridge communities
and to also work on real
substantive change but it
doesn’t have to be strong arm
and it doesn’t have to be
punitive we can come together
in a positive way and I think
crime stoppers has done that
his portly and statistically if
you actually really look at our
numbers and what we’ve been
doing it sounds like you’re
ready to take the lead in being
an arbiter of all of this and
try to make it happen. You
know, it’s been our goal for a
really long time and we always
say don’t wait to become a
victim of crime to care about
crime prevention and on this on
the flip side. We should all
have a vested interest in our
communities. This is where
we’ve read this or homes where
we send her kids to school
where we have our investments
where we planned to retire and
law enforcement is is a a great
community partner I mean look
at what we did in Harvey who
who wasn’t thankful for first
responders and law enforcement
partners at that time does that
mean that we are up he was
police brutality. Absolutely
not but there too they can be 2
separate conversations, I think
a majority of us are much or
not to handle both very
complicated very compact, but
we can handle than both
reasonably and bats or call
really our call to action right
now.
>> I’m not shocked that under
your leadership, your
organization is ready to take
on such a challenge I look
forward to hearing the results
of this I am going to make sure
that I put the crime stoppers
information on my
houstonnewsmakers play page on
click 2 Houston dot com.
So people can contact you and
find out how they can get
involved in making this all
happened you optimistic about
making positive change.
>> I am certainly in Houston.
I think we have great
leadership with our mayor and
with our chief of police and.
When our sheriff I implore the
community to really push for solutions that are reasonable
solutions that are reasonable
that are not punitive in I
think Houston’s always.
Actually been at the forefront
of doing those things the right
way and so I’m excited, I know
we will be involved for getting
It’s on the ground and we’re
excited to do so thank you