Elected officials speak about community-based solutions to violence at meeting

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Neighbors and local lawmakers keep coming together to find ways to keep the public safe.

The group Vera Action held a town hall on violence at Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives on Thursday. The panel featured Senator Samra Brouk, Assembly Member Demond Meeks, and Assembly Member Sarah Clark.

They broke down what they call community-oriented solutions on public safety. They also talked about criminal justice reform. This is what one organizer had to say about that.

“What we think is more effective in promoting community safety, reducing crime rates, preventing folks from being rearrested, is not necessarily predominantly pretrial detention,” said Jullian Harris-Calvin, the director of Greater Justice New York at Vera Action. “Its taking our resources and figuring out if there is a reason has come into our criminal legal system, let’s see what those drivers are.”

Just this week, we told you about a letter penned by former Mayor Bob Duffy to state leaders. He described the crime in the city as the worst he’s ever seen.

He said that while he supports reforms to the criminal justice system, something needs to be done to keep violent offenders off the streets.