Council president to schedule emergency meeting of city council to address violence in Providence
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – The president of the Providence City Council is calling an emergency meeting to address the uptick in violence in the city.
City Council President John Igliozzi said he’ll be scheduling a special Council as a Whole meeting next week. This comes after Councilman David Salvatore released a statement Wednesday morning, calling for the city council to suspend its August recess to convene and discuss a plan to combat the violence.
“The report of a mother being ripped from her car and attacked by a mob of ATV and dirt bike riders, while her young child was in the car, is deeply disturbing, and yet another example of the completely unacceptable wave of violent crime we have seen in our city in recent weeks. Incidents like this–a mother driving her car on a weeknight and being attacked at random–cut to the very core of public safety. Put simply, too many Providence residents do not feel safe as our city is experiencing this surge in violent crime,” Igliozzi wrote.
“As Council President, I am committed to taking both immediate and longer-term actions to stop this crime wave in its tracks. I strongly support Governor McKee’s call to allow the Rhode Island State Police to coordinate with the Providence Police Department to provide additional resources and foot patrols. This should happen immediately.”
Igliozzi said he looks forward to hearing from Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare and Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements on an action plan.
“I want to know what the corrective action plan moving forward is,” said Councilman Salvatore, “and if that means having the state police come in and provide additional bodies and reenforcement to engage with the community, then that is something I’ll be asking for as well.”
In addition to state police presence in the capital city, Salvatore agrees with Igliozzi that community policing needs to be brought back.
“I’m a big supporter and proponent of community policing and having our police officers out of their vehicles, walking the beat, and interacting with the community on a regular basis,” he said. “That model of policing has worked in the past, I believe it can work now, and we’ll be asking the public safety departments to implement a similar model that we have in recent years.”
Igliozzi added in his statement that he and Finance Chairwoman Jo-Ann Ryan will work with the council to include funding for an additional Police Academy in the 2022-23 budget.
“We must get our Providence Police force back to the 500 full-time officers needed to fully reimplement community policing. This must happen as quickly as possible, and that is why I am also calling on Mayor Elorza to immediately begin recruitment for the next Police Academy, which was approved in our most recent budget. We need more police on the streets, interacting with our residents, business owners, and community groups to prevent these types of horrific, random crimes.”
He also said he’d like the city to develop a plan to use some of the American Rescue Plan Act dollars to invest in public safety infrastructure.
©WLNE-TV 2021
