A Brief Overview of the Community Safety Act of Providence

As the nation continues to reel from conflicts with police, it’s increasingly important to gain information on local efforts to help ensure the safety of targeted communities in our home cities. Providence area writer and Motif contributor Christopher Johnson laid out many of the powerful intersectional realities of police tensions in Providence through the recounting of his own experiences in his recent article Walking While Black. Learning more about what can be done in our neighborhoods to help prevent police misconduct is a perfect follow-up to this powerful article. I recently sat down with local activist and campaign coordinator Vanessa Flores-Maldonado to discuss the progress of passing a citywide ordinance to address police accountability in Rhode Island’s capitol city.

The CSA (Community Safety Act of Providence) was conceived around 2012 after a bill to regulate police interaction with the general public was heavily edited prior to its passing. The CSA was later officially developed in June 2014 by the Step Up Network. This collaborative effort includes Providence-based community organizations Direct Action for Rights and Equality, American Friends Service Committee, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, and PrYSM (Providence Youth Student Movement). This network, which is largely lead by youth of color, has gained much momentum over the past two years in strengthening the language of the ordinance and gaining support from city councilors, but as Vanessa expressed, there are still several institutional roadblocks preventing it from hitting city council for an official vote.

There are twelve main points to the CSA. Some major components are the banning of racial profiling and other forms of profiling (such as profiling related to gender and sexual identity, disability status and ethnicity), a greater regulation on police surveillance and the collection and storing of personal information of individuals, and the initiation of video recording by police (such as body and dashboard cameras). Another major component of this citywide ordinance is a heightened regulation of the use of the gang list, an unregulated secret list held by law enforcement to which those suspected of gang activity are added and monitored. This ordinance would make it so the police must announce the names of those on the list and develop a clear standard for how they select individuals.

Though several city councilors have publicly expressed support for the CSA, the risk of a veto is too significant to ignore. Currently eight city councilors are needed to pass the ordinance. In the event of a veto, 10 votes are then required. In our meeting, Vanessa commented that four city councilors remain with the greatest potential to positively impact this vote with their support. These four councilors are Councilman Zurier of Ward 2 (College Hill, Blackstone and Wayland neighborhoods), Councilwoman Ryan of Ward 5 (Elmhurst, Mount Pleasant and Manton neighborhoods), Councilman Principe of Ward 13 (Federal Hill neighborhood and sections of downtown and the West End), and Councilman Igliozzi of Ward 7 (Silver Lake and Hartford neighborhoods). Though Mayor Jorge O. Elorza has on several occasions suggested that he would support the CSA, he continues to refrain from public support of the ordinance. This is even after his suggested compromises on the language and nature of the bill have been put in place and after several productive meetings between CSA organizers, the Providence public safety commissioner and the chief of police.

While dozens of major community organizations and countless individuals have endorsed this important effort, help is still needed. Reaching out to your local city councilor via phone, email and mail to urge their support of this ordinance is key. You can obtain information regarding who your city councilor is and their contact information at council.providenceri.com/members. Current efforts to schedule a public hearing for September are underway and supportive attendance is crucial. Consistent organizers are also required to help with outreach, planning, direct action and general tasks related to the passage of the act. For general questions and information regarding CSA planning meetings and involvement, email vanessa@prysm.us.