Three Things To Read This Week
1. Three Safety Ambassador Programs Launch In Cities Across The Country.
Honolulu Police Leader Says Police Department “Welcomes The Extra Set Of Eyes and Ears” That The City’s New Safety Ambassadors Program Provides. For the Honolulu Civil Beat, Denby Fawcett reports on the city’s new “Aloha Ambassadors” pilot program, which recently launched in Waikai with a goal “to prevent violence” and deter problematic behavior “from escalating into crimes.”
The “brightly dressed” ambassador team, which operates from 9:30 PM until 6:00 AM everyday:
“helps police deter crime” and “talks to homeless people and [people suffering from acute mental illness] to encourage them to accept the services they need”;
“actively engages with business owners, employees, and residents, gathering insights into any safety concerns or needs”; and
Provides “directions and recommendations on anything Waikiki”, offers “safety escorts to your destination”, assists with “flat tires, car lockouts, and jumpstarts,” picks up “trash and graffiti” and connects people in need with “mental wellness response and services.”
In Arlington, Texas, the new Clean and Safe Ambassador team are on patrol, serving as the “eyes and ears for the downtown community,” Christine Vo reports for The Shorthorn. Outfitted in “yellow caps and [green] ‘Downtown Arlington’ uniforms,” the teams patrol in groups of three providing a variety of services from safely escorting residents to and from cars and shops, to “removing graffiti and power washing [sidewalks and buildings],” to “conducting business safety check-ins,” as well as providing food, water, and connection to services and other “aid for homeless people.” Kevin Johnson, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who now serves as the Arlington Ambassadors’ operational manager, explained to the newspaper that as downtown Arlington grows, demand for their services stands to grow. People now “recognize the yellow hats, [and are] inviting [us] into the community [to help]… we want to get to the point where [the first instinct is] to ‘call the ambassador.’”
“Just having somebody there makes such a difference.” For KUT in Austin, Texas, Lucciana Choueiry reports that what started out as “a police understaffing problem,” led to the creation of a safety ambassadors team that “fills the gap” by patrolling underserved areas of the downtown core.
The safety team focuses on “quality of life” and other “low-level violations” such as “public intoxication and lying on a public sidewalk.” As Choueiry explains, “because they are not law enforcement, team members cannot arrest or physically remove someone from the situation.” Thus, when a safety ambassador “team member sees someone in violation, their first step is to ask the person to change their behavior and comply with the law.”
This might not seem like a winning strategy. No weapon. No handcuffs. No authority to make an arrest. And yet, the “safety team is successful about 86% of the time when using this tactic.”
Meredith Aldis, a crime watch reporter for Fox News, explains why she thinks that the new “safety team” is effective: “They wear cameras, which is a deterrent for people… they are wearing lime green vests … they are on their bikes … they look legit."
2. Momentum Grows For Campus Safety Ambassadors.
At the University of Georgia, new and returning students will notice a “highly visible… uniformed personnel [in a] new unit of the Campus Safety Ambassadors, who will [now] provide extra eyes and ears across campus during evening hours,” from 7:00 pm to 3:00 am, the university announced last month. UGA Police Chief Jeff Clark, a vocal supporter of the campus safety ambassador team, explained to local public radio station WUGA, that the team “supplements police officers as eyes and ears on the ground… performing different jobs [than campus police], such as building checks as well as that friendly face for students who often study at the library really late [where] there are dark areas where they have to walk, so if they don’t feel comfortable walking our campus safety ambassadors will show up and provide escorts, as needed.”
At the Virginia Commonwealth University, the lauded campus safety ambassador team is now expanding onto the city’s bus system as an added layer of security for riders, handling most “problems that come up [so that] Richmond Police do not have to be involved,” Jennifer Black reports for WWBT, Richmond’s local NBC news affiliate. All ambassadors are trained in “crisis intervention and mental health first aid,” which helps the team “recognize someone going through a mental health crisis and how to render aid or offer resources” to them. When not providing service on city buses, the ambassador team patrol VCU in “marked safety ambassador vehicles” and are outfitted in “neon yellow and black uniforms during their shifts.” They also handle calls for service around campus “that do not require a sworn police officer, [including] medical transports of patients and welfare checks on students living in residence halls."
3. A New National Poll Illustrates The Growing Momentum For Safety Ambassadors.
Safer Cities recently conducted a national survey of 2,400 registered voters. To gauge public support for safety ambassador programs, the survey asked respondents two questions—one aimed at measuring perceived effectiveness and the other aimed at grasping prioritization between hiring safety ambassadors and hiring additional police officers.
Three-in-four voters (77%) say “safety ambassadors” are an “effective … method of making [the] community safer.”
Note: Since not everyone is familiar with the concept of safety ambassadors, we described “safety ambassadors” as: a “highly visible uniformed presence at the street level deployed along major streets, downtown areas, or residential neighborhoods.” We told respondents that these ambassadors can, for example, “help people get home safely by providing a walking escort” or “help people in crisis get the shelter, food and health care services that they need.”
Invest in security ambassadors over hiring more police officers. By 15 percentage points, voters say that if their “city or community was looking to invest additional funding to make [the] city safer,” they would prefer “to spend the additional funds on security ambassadors to address community safety” (52%) than “spend the additional funds on hiring more police officers to address community safety.” (37%).
