FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PATRICK MORAN TESTIFIES BEFORE CITY COUNCIL TO NOT DEFUND ALEXANDRIA POLICE DEPARTMENT (APD)
Moran calls for the full implementation of body cameras for APD officers and for corrective action to protect ACPS students’ safety in 2021-22 School Year
Alexandria, VA – Wednesday, May 26, 2021 – Patrick Moran, a Democratic candidate running for Alexandria City Council, who also chairs Alexandria’s Citizen Corps Council, testified before the Alexandria City Council, Tuesday evening, May 25, 2021, to request that Alexandria City Council direct staff to take action to maintain the Student Resource Unit of the Alexandria Police Department (APD).
The Alexandria City Council voted 4-to-3 on Monday, May 3 to defund APD of eight Student Resource Officer (SRO) positions at Francis Hammond Middle School, George Washington Middle School, Minnie Howard Campus of T.C. Williams High School, and T.C. Williams High School, which eliminated nearly $789,909.00 from Alexandria Police Department’s allocation of funding for the upcoming 2021-2022 fiscal year budget.
Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun Counties, and other neighboring jurisdictions, are in the process of equipping all of their police officers with body-worn cameras. Comparably, zero Alexandria Police Department (APD) officers are equipped with this mutually beneficial critically important safety equipment to improve transparency. Moran has pledged to ensure that all 325 Alexandria police officers are equipped with body cameras by 2025 if he is elected to serve on the City Council.
Patrick Moran’s written testimony to the Alexandria City Council is copied, below:
Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and esteemed members of City Council,
My name is Patrick Moran, and I address you this evening to make a plea that the Council takes corrective action to maintain the Student Resource Officer Community Policing Program in Alexandria City Public Schools.
The City Council’s recent 4-to-3 vote to defund the Alexandria Police Department (APD) and eliminate eight Student Resource Officer (SRO) positions at George Washington Middle School, Frances Hammond Middle School, Alexandria City High School Campus, which I will note is the largest high school in the Commonwealth, was a mistake, aimed to meet political needs rather than those of the community.
I may remind you that your body’s vote to defund APD came after the School Board voted 6-to-3 to retain the Student Resource Unit, which accompanied directives to update the agreement between ACPS and the school board to ensure that requisite data of student interactions were maintained.
This would have been a success and consistent with the transparency and accountability that our shared progressive values call for.
Yet, this improvement was not allowed to take effect.
I am concerned with many other Alexandrians of a continuing failure to invest in world-class public safety, as our community grows. We must recognize coming out of the pandemic, our community has experienced a 19% increase in crime.
Our schools need dedicated public safety services and those who are specially trained to respond to active shooter situations. We do not live in a vacuum. And well-intentioned legislation and ordinances to ban guns are nascent in their implementation and enforcement.
While I commend the investment of mental health and wellness services, this cannot be at the expense of protecting our youth from the tragedies of gun violence that have hit home in our community only a few years ago at Simpson Park.
We must also recognize the need for fully funding our body camera program and remediate the starting pay gap of our police officers that continually make recruitment and retention at all-time lows.
Corrective action requires the manifestation of community policing’s greatest ideals, stripped of any discrimination or bias. Our Women and Men in Alexandria are committed to protecting and serving Alexandrians with Alexandrians and as Alexandrians. We must continue to facilitate the relationships with citizens throughout Alexandria and APD, all of which have helped to set a timeless durable standard our men and women in uniform have continued to follow.
The alternative that the Council’s vote has brought to fruition is a school year next year when our students return to school. When an issue happens, precious seconds and minutes are lost in response time. Responding will not be regular patrol women and men embattled, stripped of the funding, support, and appreciation. They will not be familiar faces, specially trained in interacting constructively with young people, prepared with special de-escalation techniques. But rather the officers that are coming in on a call to an unfamiliar landscape, with people they likely do not know. Tell me, which is better for our students?
I ask you, will that response be better or worse?
My plea is simple, direct staff to work with the ACPS to reallocate funding to fund both the before mentioned mental health services, as well as the student resource officer program. Our students and parents deserve both.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tuesday, May 26, 2021