By Daniel Barth, Executive Director of Safe Organized Spaces Richmond

Ramon Quintana from Collaborising and O’Neill Fernandez from SOS. Integral partnerships are created when funds are shared among organizations large and small, such as Collaborising and LifeLong Medical Care. Photo Credit: Maurice Tierney

Safe Organized Spaces Richmond (SOS) continues to fulfill its commitments to the city in our first year of funding, delivering on promises of jobs, encampment services, and working toward safe living spaces.

Our most recent accomplishment was helping clear the Rydin Road encampment. After residents were provided alternative temporary housing, the city had the task of making sure the street was properly cleared of debris and cleaned.

By Reimagine Richmond

On Sept 10, 2022 from 6-9 pm, loved ones will gather to honor Pedie Perez, and acknowledge eight years since losing him to police violence. The vigil will be held outside of Uncle Sam’s Liquors, 3322 Cutting Blvd, Richmond. 

By Reimagine Richmond

The city of Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) will receive $6 million from the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Program. This money is to be used by ONS to continue its violence prevention efforts in the community. The 2021 budgetary allocation recommended by Reimagine Public Safety Community Task Force and approved by a majority of City Council members enabled ONS to apply for the $6 million in state funds.

By Reimagine Richmond

Any time one sector of municipal government workers get a raise, police officers get a raise. If city workers get a raise, police get a raise. If city management gets a raise, police get a raise. If police management gets a raise, police officers get a raise. If firefighters get a raise, police get a raise. 

By Jamin Pursell

Over the last century, the automobile has become a potent symbol of traditional Americana. The Ford assembly line brought the car to the American masses in 1913. At only $260 by 1925, the Model T was affordable, costing the average worker only a few months' wages. During that time, Prohibition created an industry for the American Bootlegger. Bootleggers drove vehicles called “stock cars” to distribute their illicit goods, making them small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Drivers also modified vehicles for speed, handling, and increased cargo capacity. The early NASCAR drivers used those same cars in Daytona Beach.

By Mike Parker and Shiva Mishek*

Richmond police officers are better-compensated than officers in surrounding communities. Oakland comes close, with officers being compensated an average of $279,869.87 annually to Richmond’s $283,866.50. 

The claim that police officers are leaving Richmond because they are not being paid enough does not fit the data. According to TransparentCalifornia.com data for the latest year available (2020), the average total pay plus benefits for RPD staff is higher than in comparable surrounding communities. While the base pay for police officers in all of these communities starts out roughly the same, overtime plus extras quickly boost the average. 

Richmond’s Reimagining Public Safety Community Task Force (Task Force) held a Community Conversation on Community Crisis Response on Dec. 15, 2021. The video can be found here.

At the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 14, the council will consider whether to extend the Reimagining Public Safety Community Task Force, whose mandate is set to expire on September 30. It is crucial that our community voice its support for the Task Force’s continuation.

Richmond has a fireworks problem. For some of our residents, it feels like July 4th has become an entire season.

Mayor Butt’s obsession with Reimagine Public Safety Community Task Force member Tamisha Torres-Walker continues. Torres-Walker, who serves as a City Councilwoman in Antioch, recently made a call for the hiring of four more police officers in the district she represents.