City Council votes on Community-Police Relations Act

Tonight the Providence City Council will vote on the Community-Police Relations Act, formerly known as the Community Safety Act. The name was changed after that version of the ordinance was tabled in April, when the police union opposed the ordinance. Since then, a working group changed the name as well as certain aspects of the ordinance. Those changes include a rule that doesn’t allow higher-ranking officers to include in their notes whether or not a suspect is a “probable” gang member. They can only include if they are a “certified” gang member. Vanessa Flores-Maldonado is the Campaign Coordinator for the Community Safety Act. She said that over the past three years, everyone’s voice has been heard in the process of making this ordinance. “At this point if any city councillor doesn’t support this ordinance, that is a huge problem that we will remember come elections because we have gone through every single dance, we’ve gone to every single table we’ve been asked to, we’ve gone through every single process, everything,” she said. Flores-Maldonado says that if the ordinance passes tonight, it will be a major victory for the communities that have been working for these protections since the beginning.