Thank you, Mr. Harris. Good afternoon, Wayne Jacobs. 164 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851
Yes. Councilwoman, as the co-founder of X-offenders for Community Empowerment, we support some type of mechanism in reference to the stop and frisk. We recognize that the killing have to stop and we recognize that where the killing is taking place at. It takes place in our neighborhoods. It's committed on us by us. And to try to find a way to not do racial profiling would be almost impossible, because nine out of ten homicides is in our neighborhoods. However, I feel that if you look at doing this, they should look at doing a possible pilot program so that you can monitor. And what I mean by monitoring, the officer talked about the Terry stop. Now, the Terry stop is mainly for finding weapons. It's not a search. It's not a frisk. It's a pat-down. Now, I don't know the difference between a frisk and a search. To me they both the same. A frisk and a 165 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851 search is the same. A pat-down is totally different. Now, if this program is implemented and they are using the Terry stop as a mode to pat people down, then a police officer should not be arresting nobody when they commit a Terry stop for a bag of cocaine that's this size. Okay? In order to find a bag of cocaine this size in somebody's pocket, you have to search them. You know what I mean? If you are searching or patting a person down and they got illegal lotteries in they pocket, that's not a pat-down. That's a search. So this is the reason why we're proposing that ya'll have a pilot program. So that after those six months to a year you can look at it and you can see was the program used actually to get guns or was the program actually used just to increase the prison population of non-violent offenders or, what you will say, the Broken Glass crimes or 166 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851 quality-of-life crime. You know what I mean? That is our position, is that you need to put together a pilot program so that you can monitor and see was the training that the officer received correct and was the officer using the correct procedures to do this. Because a lot of times you give them the red flag or the go-ahead to do certain things and they go overboard. And when you look around, it will still be the same volume of guns on the street, but it will be a whole lot of other people being arrested. I'm not saying that the other people shouldn't be arrested for committing crime, but I'm saying the intent of this Committee is to only focus on guns and nothing else.
Okay. So you're saying that you are for, we'll call it, stop and frisk --
-- if 167 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851 there is proper officer training and the officers use certain types of procedures, and it should happen in a pilot area?
Right. Right. And it should be a pilot. At the beginning this should not be something that's locked -- that's etched in stone. I think you should look at doing it as a pilot project first so you can see what's good, what's bad, so you can make adjustments and make changes. That's my whole position, is that -- and that the Terry stop should be fully explained and showed to folks, simply because of the fact that, you know, we're targeting guns, we're not targeting nothing else, and we should keep that focus there. It's about guns. So if a person got a gun in their waist pant and you do a Terry stop, you will find the gun. If a person got illegal lotteries in they pocket and the police officer do a Terry stop, they shouldn't find no lotteries, you know. That's what 168 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851 I'm saying. If they're doing that procedure correctly.
Okay. Well, one thing that became very clear to me today is that we would have to do a real education. We did question the Police Department earlier around the difference between the Terry stop and a stop and frisk, and we'd have to really educate people.
And all of us. All of us. We're not experts on this. We've learned a lot today.
And we are going to have a second hearing. You were not here when we did announce that.
We believe we need to have a second hearing. But I do want to thank you, Wayne. 169 10/24/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 070851 Do you have any questions?
I want to thank you for coming in. Is there anyone else in this Chamber that wants to testify on this resolution? (No response.)
Seeing none, this hearing is recessed until the call of the Chair. Thank you. (Committee on Public Safety adjourned at 4:30 p.m.) - - - 170 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 24, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)