The purpose of the community commission for public safety and accountability (CCPSA) is to “bring police officers and Chicago residents together to plan, prioritize, and build mutual trust; strengthen the police accountability system.” Read more at chicago.gov/city/en/depts/…

Chairwoman Veronica Arreola, has called the meeting to order at 3:05pm.

The meeting is starting off with public comment.

Each speaker has two minutes to speak. The first speaker, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression says, “I urge your department to divest from Israel.”

The second speaker Josh crutchfield, also from Chicago alliance against racist and political repression. He says that he would like to see the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to invest in community rooted safety strategies.

Ruth Goring, lives a few blocks from the library. “Here because of the Israel bonds, the Illinois treasury has acquired. Between 40 and 50 percent of civilians killed in Gaza are children, my days to day life is helping to subsidize genocide.“

Goring continues, “We are directly killing people with our money.”

A majority of public comments are addressing the Illinois Treasury and their investment in Israel.

The next item on the agenda, the minutes for the last meeting have been passed.

Side note: this meeting is available to attend via zoom. More details here facebook.com/share/1EnR56wK…

As of now Arreola is providing updates. She has been attending various meetings, including with the state attorney’s office.

The next item on the agenda is talking about the Workforce allocation study. This study is looking to get more district council involvement, what the district council wants that allocation study to focus on, where we want police officers to spend their time and energy.

Next meeting, one of the district council members hope to have a slideshow to go over the study in more detail.

Council members encourage the audience to look at the city portal for specific questions. They also mention procedures in how to request commanders to show up in meetings for engagement.

One of the audience members Phil, asks how exactly questions can be addressed to the district council. He mentions that CPD incentives surveillance, would a valid informational question be to obtain that registry of where all the cameras are?

Arreola, responds that Phil’s concern can be registered as an official question.

Another audience member asks if the council can request CPD officers to not be armed when attending the council meetings? Arreola, responds that the police district council can make that request.

Arreola encourages everyone to utilize the district council email, , for any questions. Dc24cityofchicago.org

Rama, an audience member asks, “how do you receive the information back?” Arreola responds and asks the audience a follow up, “would you want a personal response? Put the response in the newsletter?”

The council will use the last few minutes of the meeting for general questions.

There were no more questions. The meeting has adjourned at 3:52pm. The next meeting will be May 21, 2025 at 6pm.