Creating a climate where people feel safe in their communities can be one of the most difficult tasks an elected official takes on. Public safety is an umbrella term for a network of community, law enforcement and public health officials working together to create that sense of security.
This election cycle, both candidates running for Atlanta City Council President, Rohit Malhotra and Marci Collier Overstreet, have asserted that public safety will be a top priority should they be elected.
For the past 15 years, Malhotra has led the Center for Civic Innovation, an organization he co-founded in part to address the persistent lack of economic mobility for Atlanta’s poorest residents.
“Policies that are good for Black folks are good for everybody,” Malhotra told Capital B Atlanta in August. “When southside communities are thriving, all of the city is thriving.”
Monday evening, in a room at the Loudermilk Conference Center on Auburn Avenue with about 20 Atlantans of different ages, races, and backgrounds, Malhotra hosted a town hall style event and kicked it off by inviting participants to share what public safety means to them.
“Implementing [or] reinforcing laws and policies that keeps the community safe,” said Sheree Ferguson.
Barbara, another participant who declined to give her last name, said she would feel safe knowing that people could get access to mental health care or other support so they don’t go out and commit crimes.
Another man said that knowing his neighborhood fire station was fully staffed would make him feel safe.
“This is why this conversation is so important,” Malhotra said after every participant had shared. “Because even in the conversation on public safety, we have so many different approaches.”
Throughout the town hall he was flanked by three public safety experts: Tahir Duckett, the executive director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law; Latoya Delk, senior associate of city engagement with Cities United; and Leonard Dungee, executive director and violence interrupter with H.O.P.E Hustlers.
Malhotra also noted that there were a few Atlanta police officers who had accepted his invitation to speak at the town hall but were told it wasn’t allowed.
“We have gotten to a place where a conversation around public safety doesn’t feel safe, even for your job or your livelihood,” he remarked.
Central to his case for improving public safety in Atlanta is focusing on investment in improving the connection in community, law enforcement, and public health so they can function as one ecosystem.
One of the proven and most efficient ways to reduce violence is through community violence intervention (CVI), which uses a public health approach by addressing the causes of violent crime like poverty and trauma.
Dungee, who has been doing CVI work around metro Atlanta for 20 years and was invited to the White House last year to discuss his work, said he’d like to see the city of Atlanta partner with CVI organizations like other municipalities across the country are doing.
For the past few years, H.O.P.E. Hustlers has partnered with DeKalb County, and Dungee said law enforcement and community members alike are grateful not only for the reduction in violence but the tax dollars they’ve saved.
“It costs on average $150,000 for a shooting scene,” he said. “You have eight, nine police officers. You’ve got two, three sergeants, two lieutenants, a major, and three detectives all on that crime scene for up to eight hours.”
Over a six-month period where H.O.P.E Hustlers conducted 174 mediations, Dungee said, DeKalb County estimated that their police department saved about $150 million.
Malhotra said he sees CVI as a central component to his public safety plan as City Council president, and intends to also work with Fulton County, which is the local authority on all public health issues.
The Overstreet campaign did not respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment; however, on the campaign trail she has touted her record of working with community and law enforcement to improve public safety and getting a new fire station for her constituents as District 11’s council member.
