The City of Greensboro announced this week that the new Office of Community Safety was created in September.
The new office, which is supposed to “create a community-centered and safe Greensboro for all residents and visitors,” was included in the budget presented by City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba and approved by the City Council in June.
From the information about the new office, which will report to the city manager’s office, the purpose is to hold more meetings and add a level of bureaucracy to city government.
Assistant City Manager Trey Davis said in the press release, “OCS is the result of conversations and community input about the need for a non-conventional or alternative approach to traditional policing. This is an example of the City’s willingness to think outside of the public safety tool box in an effort to be more efficient and responsive.”
Latisha McNeal will be managing the Office of Community Safety. She previously served as the criminal justice administrator for the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission (GDJAC), which is one of the four sections of the Office of Community Safety.
The other three sections of the Office of Community Safety are the Behavioral Response Team, Violence Prevention (scheduled to start in January 2023) and Law Enforcement Assistance Diversion (LEAD) (also scheduled to start in January 2023).
The objectives of the Office of Community Safety are to:
“Create a hub managed by the office for innovative and alternative responses to calls for service.
“Allow GPD [Greensboro Police Department] to focus on issues relevant to law enforcement.
“Allow for transparency and accountability for both the police and community.
“Provide GPD and the community a ‘bridge’ to work collaboratively under City leadership on issues that affect all of Greensboro.
“Meet the community’s evolving needs by using rigorous analysis of data and public sentiment.”
This is total insanity!
This is total insanity!! What a waste of our tax dollars. Another WOKE do nothing organization. So, in 6 months we should ask what have you achieved?
You absolutely get what you vote for. God help the City of Greensboro.
Yup, another layer of taxpayer paid bureaucracy.
I’ll be anxious to see numbers when this bureaucratic group has 90, 120, 180, and 365 days of crime vs. the previous year.
More BS and a waste of our increased taxes. Looks like we still like pixie dust and unicorns.
They already have one of these. Its called the Greensboro Police department. How about leaving them alone to do their job.
Wow! I can’t wait to see how this is going to work. Does this Office of Community Safety means they are finally admitting ” Cure Violence” was a boondoggle?
How?? The area that was funded has the lowest percentage of crime in the city????
Touchy feely bull excrement.
A pansy city manager who’s soft on crime makes for impotent cops.
More money for government bureaucracy leaves less for actual public safety. So sad our fair city is rapidly devolving into another failed leftist run crime and corruption filled joke. More folks to push papers around and give citizens yet another layer of redundant useless bureaucracy to find with their sweat and tears.
What’s gonna happen to the Cure The Violence money that Johnson is ripping the City off for?
Since the police has defunded itself by failing to fill over 100 positions for over a year or more, sounds like the county is taking the lead in protecting the county without them. Makes sense to me.
The police cannot fill the positions because the city of Greensboro (City Council) refuses to make salary and benefits (like take home cars) competitive. So you are correct Chris-potential hires go to Guilford County Sheriff, High Point, Graham (who starts at about $5,000 more than GPD and a take home car), ect. I actually in theory agree with you. The “leadership” of the department has done nothing innovative or aggressive in years to recruit. They do not to my knowledge have any full time recruiters. They used to have to old retired guys who went around to military bases (one might have been related to a previous chief). GPD has been their own worst enemy. They have not had a chief in years who will stand up to council and state what is needed to recruit. Once again, if there is not enough police it really affects the east side where most of the crime is centered (you listening Sharon, Goldie, Yvonne?). I fled that side of town as soon as I could support myself and GTFO of there.
Hello citizens who live in the crime dominant part of the city-your council and the people you keep electing do not care about you. They have been in their positions for years and have not done anything to improve the crime rate, the blight, the economic situations (like a grocery store). Everything has stayed the same or gotten worse.
Yup it does make a lot of sense. More police would help a lot.
Couple of major things wrong with your statements here, as usual. This whole article is about the CITY dealing with CITY issues. The COUNTY is not involved in this article in any way, shape, or form. OCS is a new City of Greensboro department. Secondly, the police did not defund themselves. The city council and city manager decide on things like pay rates and benefits, such as take home cars. By those two groups choosing not to keep GPD competitive in the job market, THEY have indirectly, but intentionally, defunded GPD. GPD did not, and really cannot defund itself, even if it wanted to, since they do not control their own purse strings in most regards.
Pay attention to what your reading, think about what you’re typing, and maybe do a little research.
Playa Don gonna burn Chris every time. Chrissy don’t even reply to him anymore cause he knows what’s up. Run from da fire little Chrissy! Run and keep runnin
Keep the fires high, boi! Go play picky names with Allen
Why not set up the organization as a division of the Police Dept? Oh, I know. . . .they don’t want ANY more money poured into the department. Wonder if some of the city council members or their families or friends are involved in this?
Also, do the non-profits get any review by the council to ensure they are not just a political arm of the council members? How many non-profits employ people who have direct family contacts with the council? I know . . .”there’s nothing to see here, so move along”
Community safety? Isn’t that a police department function? Sounds to me like this is another layer of government they want to create that reduces their direct oversight, and certainly NOT in the police department which the council wishes would go away.
I think this is another way to defund police, create more issues for the average officers answering calls, and put people with no law enforcement experience over lording GPD. I would also like to know how these directors and managers keep getting hired without the jobs seeming to be posted or posted in a way that there is a competitive process. Good God help us. Good luck recruiting and retaining officers. You can go to High Point or Burlington and not put up with the liberal BS this town puts on us fools who still live here.
I would also like to know what “community “ has had input. If it is all east side people they need to focus on their high crime low education area of town and leave the rest of us alone.
Do you believe 44%of this city lives in east Greensboro? I mean this is a black city if that as the case you could maybe win an election but.
The taxpayers of Greensboro have a vested interest in knowing how Latisha McNeal plans to implement the objectives and then to measure the results to determine success or failure.
How was her performance measured as the criminal justice administrator for the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission (GDJAC)? Here is that “criminal justice” thing again. Are we talking about justice for the victim or justice for the criminal? Sometimes the only justice for the victim is the punishment of the criminal. As a society, we should stop making excuses for criminals and stop this “criminal justice thing.”