welcome to the on podcast with your host lanaa Jacobson Welcome to our on podcast ons stands for office of neighborhood safety I'm your host lanaa Jacobson and I am a member of the on team one of the things I am charged with is working with a group of community council members to come up with Innovative preventative ideas and programs that prevent crime in doing this work I learned very quickly that St Paul has an abundance of community organizations that are doing a lot of work to build a safer St Paul but there isn't really a free platform for these Orcs to talk about what they do why they do it and how you can get a hold of them so fast forward we were approached with this amazing opportunity to work with our Community Partners here at face Toof face Academy joining them in their Outreach to connect with community Through podcast and we jumped on the chance so that we could create this free platform for our community organizations shout out to face to-face Academy here in St Paul we had so much fun with them this past spring on a project and a big thank you to them from the city of St Paul for being such a Pioneer in youth support so a little bit of background the office of neighborhood safety was launched in 2022 under the Melvin Carter Administration who is currently our mayor here in St Paul Community First Public Safety played a big role in this and if you guys don't know anything about it you can find more information at information. STP l.gov Community First Public Safety is exactly what it's called it's a 40 plus community members collectively pinpointing public safety issues that we have within St Paul their purpose was to do the research and make suggestions to the mayor's Administration putting together a list of needs with the idea of putting the community needs first our department was created from the research and suggestions from the Community First Public Safety framework at that time the city Administration knew that they needed something but they weren't sure what it was that they needed what to call it and what was the model and mechanisms they were going to use to accomplish the Community First Public Safety recommendations right so ladies and gentlemen today I have part of my crew to help me better explain who we are and what we're made up of in the city of St Paul the city of St Paul City attorney Lindsay Olen City attorney Olen oversees a a very very large team that handles all things legal as it pertains to the city of St Paul she is a Hamlin graduate a professor at Minnesota University of law school the first female General Council of the Minnesota National Guard and Minnesota Department of military Affairs and a member of the Ramsay County Equal justice committee she is calling in and hi Lindsay hello everyone so Lindsay if you were a superhero which superhero would you be oh wow um I think um I think I would be Wonder Woman She's always been a hero of mine okay and can you tell the audience a little bit about who you are behind the superhero suit well I really believe in Equal justice and I'll tell you a quick story I hope it's a quick story before I became the City attorney I went to a leader course at Harvard that the military sent me to actually and we had to do this this exercise where we come up with who we are as a leader and what our Mantra is in the world and what our purpose is and mine was Warrior for justice and we had to write it on a card and sit down in the room and then everyone else in the room got up and walked around and looked at the cards and then the professor randomly chose people and said whose card did you look at and somebody who looked at my card got chosen to answer and said I looked at Lindsay olsson's card and he said okay Lindsay Olsson explain to me you know what your card says and why it says that and so I had to stand up in front of the whole group and explain why I had written out Warrior for justice and it was a very emotional moment for me and the reason that I came up with that as my purpose is because I get very passionate about both the idea of people achieving just outcomes and when I see Injustice I want to fix it and I think there's a couple people in this room who have probably observe that happening and know how true that is that I just immediately want to help and fix what I see happening and I chose a profession even becoming a City attorney where I could be an actual warrior in the military for our country and so I put those two things together and I think that really comes to the core of who I am and I get to do that now for the people of St Paul and for our team and also with on so I think that comes to the core of who I am and what I do super cool thank you next we have on director Brooke Blakey Blakey is a Northwestern graduate who studied at law enforcement executive Development Association some of you might know that as FBI Lita and Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal apprehension better known as the BCA Brooke has an undergraduate degree in child psychology and criminology from the University and once served in the Ramsey County Public Defenders Office Brooke Cape or no cape in your superhero suit and why definitely a cape cuz I'm all about accessories [Laughter] so definitely a cape how many hours of sleep do you get on average three do you sleep in your suit or do you wear regular pajamas like normal people I sleep in my suit tell the audience a little bit about your super about your nons superhero self my nons superhero self um loves to shop and has a pension for sneakers and so I am a self-proclaimed sneaker head and I love my sneakers so when I'm not in my suit with my cap on I'm shopping somewhere for sneakers for sneakers and last but not least we have deputy director Rachel Holmer Rachel is a University of Minnesota alumni and has a MERS in leadership from Concordia she spent part of her career working for Hanahan County in the center of innovation and excellence and Human Services divisions telling people what to do and how to get it done she came to work for the city of St Paul in 2019 cuz she wanted to bring her expertise home and Foster her own Community now I'm so serious very curious how Rachel's going to answer this question because at first glance Rachel's suit looks like she would probably wear like pink or purple with a little bit of glitter but she will probably say that if she was a superhero she would be the hawk cuz she's like that that so Rachel who are you deep deep down inside as a superhero o uh I'm like the black widow okay a little bit edgy not so mainstream okay my next question was going to be what power about this character do you like the most but I'm thinking it's probably the edgy part yeah yeah yeah yeah tell the audience about yourself and don't forget to include your favorite dish to make oh cuz Rachel Cooks you guys I do cook I think it's lasagna I like to cook a lasagna but everything from the sauce all the way down I'll make from scratch like the tomatoes and stuff yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah now I'm going to have to bring that into the office just know it so like I said I have City attorney Lindsay Olen here with me director Brooke Blakey of office of neighborhood safety and deputy director Rachel Holmer so my first question is going to be to City attorney Lindsay Lindsay what introduced you to the idea of community-driven alternative Public Safety work well I think it started with restorative justice for me probably when I was a kid in the powor neighborhood I participated in a circle and it had a lasting effect on me and I was always interested in restorative practice after that and when I became a City attorney one of the first things I wanted to do was start a restorative practice for the office as an alternative to traditional prosecution and that practice has a real connection with community and with restoring the individual to community and repairing harm by working with community and restoring that harm and connecting in with communities and the program that we created in the city attorney's office also is very neighborhood based with individuals that are in the neighborhood where the crime was committed and so the individual participant works with folks in the circle from the place where the crime occurred and it has a real lasting impact on not just the participant but also the participants Circle members as well what was the moment you realized this would be the perfect antidote for Community violence amongst our youth and our young adult population in St Paul I guess you know when the mayor asked me to work on building that program I really relied a lot on folks who knew more about the work than I did and I think looking at other cities and programs that have done this really well all of those programs really focused in on community and the communities that were most affected the folks that were most affected and also doing that in a really local way and not just taking something that has worked in another place and assuming that it's going to work the same for our community and so I think that those Concepts and the the longstanding data around certain aspects of gun violence reduction programs working with Community St Paul is a place that you know our Small Town St small I think is a place where we can coal us around how our our different neighborhoods and communities are affected and build that Community for ourselves very effectively and I think we're doing that so my next question is for you and deputy director Rachel if I can just say Rachel you can what were the places you knew what were the pieces excuse me you knew were necessary to start the process of building the division that would be taking on this kind of work and Lindsay I'll let you go first well I'll say first and foremost I knew we needed a director knew St Paul who would be able to take on both the challenge of building this work building the division and bringing together all of these various stakeholders who weren't used to working this way who are working in different ways in the community and I could we definitely found that in director Blakey I think we also needed to bring in outside experts I think we've been very lucky in the work that we've been able to uh the help and the assistance been able to get with John J and also with Harvard those folks have been extremely impactful and I also think we had great luck when we built our alternatives to traditional prosecution we did site visits and I'm a huge believer in site visits to see programs that work and we were able to build relationships with some really great programs and other cities other teams that are working really well and that's also been a strength and something that we that we lean on something that we needed to help us succeed in the beginning and Rachel what do you think what were the pieces that you knew were necessary to start the process of building this division yeah I think Lindsay was right one of the first things I thought of was oh God we got to find somebody to lead this office that knows St Paul and not just knows it but understands and really is rooted in the Deep history of the city there's so much richness in the history of St Paul and the families that live here and stay here so finding somebody that knew that understood that was connected to all of that was connected to community was so important but also understood the complex nature of Public Safety and could really work together with some naysayers and and work with folks that are active in the community as well as pulling together a number of different departments to create this Enterprise wide approach for Community First Public Safety in St Paul so I agree with Lindsay we found it in Brooke and we were so lucky we kept saying we needed to find our unicorn and and I think we did um the other big thing that was really important going into the implementation of this office was continuing to keep that tie to the community voice the office was a mandate from our community out of the Community First Public Safety commission um that 48 member commission that met for a number of months to to talk about alternative responses to lower level police calls and and they said we want you to do a lot of things different and we want you to create an office that's going to head up a lot of that work so knowing that we needed we needed that voice constantly in this work we're not doing this for the city of St Paul the the organization we're doing this for the city of St Paul the residents and so if we don't have that voice constantly chirping in the back of our head then what are we doing it for so that really was a big reason why the neighborhood safety Community Council was born and put into ordinance and and codified so we are lucky to have invested Partners in this work in that in that commission but also just committed Partners in the community who are like you said at the top of this doing the work of Public Safety in different ways in the community so those were those were big deals for us Rachel did you anticipate any challenges and if so what were they and did you think the city of St Paul would be able to navigate and adapt to change yeah I I really didn't going into the hiring process for uh for the director I was like good Lord who is this person where where is this needle in that hay stack um I she come with a cave yeah exactly and a set of shoes um yeah it was that just felt like it was going to be a huge challenge for us and I we were we were absolutely ready to have to extend our our search process thinking that maybe this first round of the search process is not going to get us what we need and we'd have to look harder but lo and behold she she show show up so that I thought that was going to be a big Challenge and it was actually less of one than than we anti than I anticipated at least the other thing that was going on within the city was that we had a police chief retiring at that time and a a huge search going on for our new police chief in St Paul and that partnership with the police department is so huge in everything we do and not knowing who is going to lead that department was a little anxiety inducing and it turned into a really great opportunity for us because Brook was already hired at that point she got to help with that search um so she almost got to really choose help choose who her partner in this work was and and I think we were really lucky with Chief Axel Henry being chosen into that into that job because he's such a great partner and that I think trickles down into all the way to the street officers that we work with they are so excited about this work and knowing that we have such great partnership with them in what we're doing I think is also just fundamental to the success that we were we're already seeing shout out to Chief Henry so Rook when they found you what did you envision for the office of neighborhood safety when you first took on the role the first thing that I thought was I have to make sure that folks understand that this is not part of a defund the police movement I think that that was the very first thing that I was like I got to make sure that Community understands that there's a purpose and the purpose is not to defund the police and that this is our opportunity to reshape what non-traditional Public Safety looks like and so coming from that public safy world and and now looking at it at from a different lens it was super important that that was the first thing that I thought about and then how to build from there and when you came on to help build the new division what were the issues you knew you need to tackle first aside from making sure we rebuild relationships with the police department I tell everybody the first thing that I thought was I'm GNA have to like really work hard with the police department because they're like m and that wasn't um the biggest hurdle I think the biggest hurdle was having Community understand that it takes time and I knew the urgency and the need to get moving but it was really trying to sell them on everything takes time we haven't done a spectacular job because you'll always hear me say I'm flying the plane as we build it so um we took some time but we did laun really fast in the sense of like there was an a need of urgency to let the community know that we were serious about what they had said and they had been saying it for many many years and so this was the opportunity to make sure that we were getting stuff done that they asked for so I think that was one of the biggest challenges tell us what the office of neighborhood safety encompasses and what specifically are the subdivisions we're charged with working with it's aot so I'll try to talk slow cuz I generally am accustomed to like rattling it off super fast so the office of neighborhood safety really is looking at community-driven non-traditional Public Safety and people say what is that my easiest way to say is that we work on things that the traditional First Responders encounter that they're not necessarily trained to do do nor was it their intention when we were developing traditional Public Safety years ago and so we're engaging with community in sometimes their worst moments but also in sometimes when they just need assistance and police fire aren't the assistance that they need and they needed to be mobile they needed to meet them where they're at and so that's what we do so we have one of the biggest things that was set out in the community first Public Safety strategy framework that you talked about earlier was the need for Community response teams and so with the mayor and the deputy mayor we talked about maybe more of a optimal response and a community response knowing that you might need multiple things when you call 911 right right because it's not all just one thing it's not all one thing so we might need police on the front end to secure the scene and keep it safe while we bring in additional resources to address the issue at hand and it might be some things that we need very simple things like I need a timeout for my kids and I'm I'm struggling with some of my mental health but that doesn't mean that we need kids to be removed from their space just means that we need to provide an additional resource in that but in the very moment based on what was happening we might have need to police we might need fire to come and deal with some of the immediate building needs so we might have a fire things like that but then we have the aftermath of how do we take care of community and family how do we stabilize and so one of the things that the office of neighborhood Safety Division that we have is really looking at Community stabilization and that comes in lots of different ways the second portion of what community was talking about is how do we engage with young individuals that are headed down a path of continuous engagement in violence and specifically gun violence and with that how do we get Upstream to have a prevention and intervention component but also recognizing that there's still some enforcement that needs to happen as well and so with that we started working with the national network for safe communities and engaging in their gun violence intervention model which has purposes of focused deterrence which is an overall component of what community was asking is that we know that there's a small amount of individuals in our community that is causing so much harm and if we focus on those individuals instead of being a blanket approach which causes more harm to the community because we are policing the whole community that is not necessarily engaged in that behavior but working with the focused deterence in the gvi map model is really being surgical about those individuals and basing what we engage with them on the data that we're receiving from law enforcement which is part of that traditional piece but then providing a non-traditional approach to that traditional information that we give so bringing in life coaches and some of those smaller little things to really engage with those individuals working closely with probation schools and Human Services to wrap around the whole family because what we have found is that there's obviously multiple issues that are occurring that are causing individuals to resort to violence and especially gun violence and so it was an opportunity to really be focused and so we have project peace that does that focused deterrence work and it is partnership with the Aspire unit with St Paul police department and it's also bridging that Gap because we have officers who in their normal course of work are engaging with some of these families who are saying this family needs more than just this enforcement piece and so with that they give us referrals we engage with the family and we we start those wraparound services and saying that we want to keep you safe alive and free and we want to change your behavior but recognize that if you're not interested in staying safe alive and free that we have other mechanisms that can be employed but that's at the last resort and then we have our more different responses to traditional response that fire and police would for individuals that are experiencing mental health or substance use work and so we have our cares team which is EMTs and eventually some type of behavioral specialists that will respond to low Acuity calls within the community to really address individuals that are suffering from Mental Health crisis or substance use but also need that medical intervention in the beginning before we can start down the road Road of other service providers being able to engage with individuals to take them down that journey of self-care we are also in the process of redefining our Coast team which was a community stabilization team that had social workers that worked with the police department it was initially in its formation years look to be a embedded response as we're looking at how do we reframe our optimal response teams we're looking and working with canopy Roots which is behavioral response what does that look like how do we modify what we've seen and how do we make sure that we are continuously growing based on the data that we're receiving and engaging with our residents in a way that's more meaningful and purposeful so those are the divisions that we have in in ons so folks just a recap we office of neighborhood safety does community stabilization we work on individuals for self-care substance abuse mental health we have a project piece that works to bridge the gap Human Services life coaches probation we work on gun violence intervention youth engagement and we also partner with the police department and our fire and EMTs Rachel do you have anything to add I sure do We we forgot all about the nfcc yes so the neighborhood safety Community Council plays like a a really big role for us it's a appointed commission by the the mayor and applications are always open so please go online and apply to be part of the nsdc yes work with and work with lanaa I was going to say on top of that it's led by the wonderful Len Jacobson absolutely but they do uh they do Grant making um right now we're you're in the process of micro grants and and and doing a lot of contract work with that but micr grants into the community that um for organizations that are working in this space of Public Safety and and alternatives to traditional law enforcement and Community stabilization work things that really fit into the the Strategic plan for on um so you're making microgrants for that and they let us know if we're staying on the ball with our work here in on too so they have a voice to our strategic plan and the work that we're doing and keeping a pulse on on what's going on in the community and and what the community thinks of what we're doing thanks Rachel sometimes I forget about myself so um let's see if we still have Lindsay um City attorney Lindsay Olson are you still available to talk yes I'm here okay so I have one last question and I'm going to let you go first what are your goals for office of neighborhood safety well I think the plan from the beginning was that they would be able to become their own Department within the city um right now they're part of the office of the City attorney and um that's a pretty unique construct but I think it's one that's uh worked for us so far but I think you know I've viewed my role uh as being able to support the buildup and with the idea that you know the department will succeed on its own at some point when it's staffed appropriately and funded appropriately and I think longterm this work is really important for the city and gun violence is something for our country that I think we will always struggle with and the offsite neighborhood safety is about more than gun violence reduction but gun violence reduction is Central to Public Safety for our community and something that I feel like I've had to say in many space and I think all of us should be saying is that when gun violence goes up that our program needs more support we need more Staffing we need more resources many times gbi and CBI programs like project piece offices like neighborhood safety get less attention they get less funding unlike law enforcement so when crime goes up law enforcement gets more attention and we say hey we need more police on the street we need more Public Safety resources and we don't look at our office of neighborhood res neighborhood safety resources as those same types of resources and we need to reframe the way that we look at that as a community and be thinking about constantly adding those resources and Personnel where they're needed because crime will fluctuate and right now crime is down in St Paul and that's fantastic and that's a result of all the great efforts of the people on this podcast and all of the staff and the Enterprise that we've been working with in the community but when it goes up I think what I want for on is that we remember that we need to to keep supporting and and not let all of this effort go by the wayside amen sister what do you think what are your goals for office of neighborhood safety My ultimate goal is that it is sustainable past me that we are creating a succession plan and that it becomes embedded in the interprise and just as Lindsay talked about that it is something that is just a part of the normal everyday functioning of a city um that it's not a program that it's a department it's a change in system and how we view things so when things happen it's an automatic that it's we call Office of neighbors safety we call the police department we call the fire department we are talking with our Emergency Management in that it's ingrained and involved in every single aspect of how the city runs because we are in every aspect of how the city runs and we have been real integral in answering those calls when needed when non-traditional thought processes or needs come about office of neighborhood safety is generally the the first call and so I want that to actually continue to be um what it is and be Beyond me when I walk out the door that it stays a part of that so that is the biggest goal that it just becomes just like when we think we pick up the phone and call 911 that when somebody arrives it's going to be on police fire and not you know what was that program called right yeah Rachel what do you think what are your goals so much of the work that I do for on is like the unsexy behind the scenes stuff um and so I I have I have a few goals in that like internally I along with what you've said Brook is I really want us to to be established for Success long term that we've got a strong foundation with you know our budget is sound and we have funds that we can rely on longterm to sustain us that we've got a a solid staff and I think we're so on the way to that we've recently hired some just amazing passionate talented folks that are chomping at the bit to get out and do the work that you know we've got just standard policies and practices in place you know we're working through all that and we're working through a new case management system as well and so fully launching all of that so that the office isn't really dependent on the people that are there and that it's just operationalized and that it's become such a part of the fabric of the city of St Paul that folks can't imagine not having it there so that it you know it lives well beyond us I also I think we part of the work that we didn't really talk about too much was a lot of this crime prevention through environmental design work that we've just started so our technology and that's something we can add to the list too but so much of the work that we do including that is an enterprise-wide effort that though we may lead it though we may instigate a lot of the conversations and and the meetings around that and hold people accountable to work we can't do it by ourselves we don't want to do it by ourselves it's a really truly an enterprise-wide effort and I think folks across the city are really at least within our organization are starting to see how they play into public safety all the way from Parks and wreck and libraries to Public Works and ped like all of those departments play such a fundamental role in creating safety and safe spaces and safe communities in the city and also I really want our community to see themselves as part of this work as well and um that's something that we absolutely I think have some work to do there you know we had a lot of internal focus in this last or first couple years and and it's it's going to be important for us to really find that space for how our community fits into those conversations as well so internally I think that's you know those are my goals really creating a sustainable office for for the long term and externally I want St Paul to be the choice for families to grow because they know that their kids are going to grow up in a a supportive community that values them that values their learning that values their safety and that folks feel safe and they see safe happening throughout their communities and so often there're there just pockets in St Paul that don't feel it they don't see it and it really as we've seen in some of the work that we've done has drastically changed how some kids grow up in St Paul versus other kids and it needs to be Equitable and equal across the board that every kid in St Paul is going to grow up safe lenea you didn't get to go we want to hear from you what what are your goals for ons I think one of my goals is to I'm hoping that the office of neighborhood safety can change the culture you know what I mean like I want the fact that we're trying to rebuild relationships and we're working with so many different divisions within the city of St Paul and I want people to see that and I wanted people to trust that and for that mechanism to see that that mechanism is working and then for our youth to start feeling that and embracing that and changing how they look at life and how they go about their day-to-days and how they aspire to have things Beyond just tomorrow and that they realize whatever's happening in this present moment isn't going to last forever so that they can just wake up forget about it move on and move forward and build something for themselves and I think that's one of my goals in working in all of this preventative stuff is to just let's change the culture for the better so there you have it folks thank you for tuning in and for your support we're really excited about this project and being able to connect with you on alternative Public Safety matters program in your local growth and healing opportunities