Public Safety
“Public safety is not only of critical importance to families but also to economic development and job growth. My record reflects my vision. In 2006, I took on the status quo, successfully fighting to hire all of the police officers requested by CMPD over a mayoral veto and a party line vote. Opponents called it ‘unnecessary and unmanaged’ government spending. I called it making Charlotte safer.”
Public safety impacts both neighborhoods and the business community, and the next mayor of Charlotte must have a record of making public safety a top priority. Anthony Foxx has set himself apart in that regard and always has worked for a strong, comprehensive approach to keep our city safe through strong law enforcement and strong prevention.
The RecordI. Enforcement
A. Keeping Up Police Staffing
• Advocated for hiring all 70 sworn police positions requested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) in 2006, overcoming a mayoral veto and party line vote. The additional officers allowed CMPD to add a new police division in University City, decrease response times and lower the overall crime rate.
• Pushed city council to request federal COPS funding for 150 new police officers.
• Traveled to Washington at personal expense to meet with members of Congress to push for COPS funding, resulting in 50 new positions through the federal stimulus bill.
• The only city council member to propose additional police staffing in the current city budget.
• Called on city council to act on hiring an additional 75 police officers to meet the CMPD full request for new officers in the current year, continuing his record of hiring all police officers requested by CMPD.
B. Developing a New Public Safety Plan
• For 15 years, the Charlotte City Council had no new Public Safety Plan - a comprehensive, up-to-date strategy for improving police services. The last such review occurred in 1994.
• Foxx led city council to implement a new comprehensive Public Safety Plan. With the help and guidance of new police chief Rodney Monroe, the city council approved such a plan in 2008.
• The new Public Safety Plan promotes a neighborhood policing model that will continue to decrease crime by: moving police officers from desk jobs to patrol positions, moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to a tailored approach, focusing on neighborhood-specific crime issues and enforcement strategies.
• Thus far, the Charlotte crime rate has dropped by 27 percent over last year.
C. Adding New Police Substations
• In 2006, over a mayoral veto and party line vote, Foxx put in motion capital projects that will ensure police presence and make a difference in Charlotte neighborhoods, including a new North Division Police Substation on Beatties Ford Road and a new Providence Division Police Substation.
D. Improving the Criminal Justice System
• For several years, Foxx has worked quietly and effectively with leaders in Raleigh to convey the criminal justice needs of Mecklenburg County. In 2008, he brought leaders of the state court system to Charlotte for a town hall meeting, also including members of the General Assembly, former judges and law enforcement officials.
II. Prevention
A. Mentoring
• With more than 6,000 mentors needed in Charlotte, Foxx has closed the gap by initiating a number of mentoring programs, including going back to his alma mater, West Charlotte High School, to assist current students through a new “Emerging Leaders” program.
B. Youth Employment
• As a first-term city council member, Foxx spoke to the Mayor’s Youth Employment Program graduation in 2006. He was shocked to find that only 40 youth had participated, less than one percent of the total number of juveniles arrested that year.
• The experience led him to push the city council to expand the Youth Employment Program, challenging it to reach thousands of kids. While the current program has put 600 kids through a job training program and placed more than 200 in jobs, Foxx strongly believes it can grow faster and reach even more young people with greater effort.
C. After School Programs
• Vigorously has supported city after school programs and worked to expand those efforts.
D. Parenting Initiative
• In the wake of two successive years of July 4 incidents of violence, led the City Council to initiate a “parenting” collaboration of local government, non-profit agencies and families to address ways to help families. To date, the collaborative has developed a resource “tool-kit” for parents, sponsored a Father of the Year Essay Contest and activated parents, neighbors, non-profits and governmental agencies to focus on helping parents.
The Vision:I. Enforcement
A. Keeping Up Police Staffing
• Strive to continue his record of meeting the staffing needs of the CMPD to improve safety, making our families and workplaces safer.
• Work to grow a police force that reflects the increasingly diverse community it serves.
B. Supporting the New Public Safety Plan
• Having led the adoption of the 2008 Public Safety Plan, continue the work of deploying that plan as mayor – working with CMPD to target specific crime trends within Charlotte neighborhoods and responding appropriately, increasing patrols and police presence throughout and further increasing the confidence of citizens and businesses that CMPD will protect them.
C. Increase Neighborhood Activism to Reduce Crime
• Understanding that CMPD must work in partnership with neighborhoods to lower crime even further, work with neighborhoods to promote crime watch programs as well as stronger youth initiatives to keep young people safe and off the streets, including mentoring and tutoring, youth employment, competition for after school program support and a more visible initiative to improve parenting among all Charlotte residents.
D. Pass a Rental Registration Ordinance
• Supports a new non-fee-based Rental Registration Ordinance to promote accountability of landlords, particularly the irresponsible ones who enable their properties to be used as havens of criminal activity.
E. Increase Police Visibility by Locating Officers Closer to Residents
• Push to complete new police substations in the North and Providence Divisions and a future Eastland area substation. These efforts enable more police visibility in the field.
F. Develop a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Criminal Justice System Plan and Fight for Resources to Support It
• Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have a criminal justice system that lacks adequate resources and suffers from disjointed efforts among local law enforcement agencies to address our needs.
• Working with Mecklenburg County, bring those agencies to the mayor’s office, along with state court officials, and work with them until Charlotte-Mecklenburg has a well-developed plan to improve efficiency and effectiveness within the criminal justice system, including a specific plan to accelerate deployment of court system technology, consideration of efficiency strategies such as community prosecution and developing more effective mechanisms to address drug addiction by offenders and re-entry programs. Foxx will fight for the resources to implement that plan.
II. Prevention – Working to Destroy the Pipeline to Crime
A. Creating an Office of Youth Initiatives
• Using existing resources, create an Office of Youth Initiatives to pull together city staff already dedicated to activities supporting Charlotte’s youth. This office will be a one-stop operation for parents and children to access resources and city initiatives designed to lift the ambitions of Charlotte’s young people.
B. Closing the Mentoring Gap by Calling Our Community to Action
• As mayor, continue setting an example by tutoring an area school child for two hours each week and encouraging all able Charlotte residents to do the same. If more follow this example, we will close the mentoring gap and close the achievement gap in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
C. Expanding Youth Employment Program
• Foxx believes the city, in partnership with families and neighborhoods, should work harder to lift the ambitions of young people by learning valuable lessons about hard work and personal responsibility.
• Grow jobs and internships within the Youth Employment Program to match the annual number of juvenile arrests (4,500 in one recent year).
D. Reaching More Children Through After-School Programs
• Expand the reach of city-funded after-school programs by promoting competition for city funds and expanded accountability.
E. Placing Renewed Focus on Parenting
• Create a community call to action that focuses all parents on helping their children.
• Work with area hospitals and Mecklenburg County to ensure that, from the moment a child is born, parents have access to resources on early childhood care, nutrition and school-readiness.
F. Partnering to Expand Re-Entry Initiatives
• The least expensive jail cell is the one we do not have to build. Having the strongest law enforcement record of any mayoral candidate, Foxx knows that the revolving door of the criminal justice system cannot be closed by enforcement initiatives alone.
• Non-violent offenders who have paid their debt to society and have a demonstrated desire to lead a responsible life deserve a second chance. If they can pull their lives together and progress from tax burdens to taxpayers, our entire community benefits.
• Working in partnership with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey, push for effective re-entry initiatives such as expansion support for the Center for Community Transitions. Eighty-two percent of those who complete its Employment Readiness Workshop remain out of prison and jail compared to 30 percent of those released who do not receive re-entry services.