PVD Mayor Smiley convenes New England Mayors and Police Chiefs to discuss law enforcement under the Trump Administration
"DEI is embedded in what we do, and we don’t intend to change that," said Mayor Smiley. "We serve a diverse community and employ a diverse workforce."
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and Police Chief Oscar Perez, Jr. convened a meeting of 22 mayors and 19 police chiefs from across New England on Wednesday to discuss policing challenges facing local communities nationwide.
“Speaking on behalf of all of our mayors, we know that strengthening our cities’ public safety means strengthening our cities,” said Mayor Smiley at a press conference, flanked by Mayors from every New England state except New Hampshire. “When we spend time together, we realize that we are facing so many shared challenges, so whenever we can share solutions, it improves our cities.
“Today’s topics will include reducing gun violence, the challenge of recruiting police officers in today’s environment, and how to better retain and properly train them. We will talk about policing amid the new and current federal environment. We’re going to address the rise in hate crimes and extremism and share solutions on how to combat that better, and then talk about innovative strategies concerning the opioid and overdose crisis, which is a nationwide challenge that often falls to mayors and police departments to try to deal with. We are pleased to bring national experts together and have our colleagues report on successes in their cities.”
National experts from the Human Rights Campaign, the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, and the University of Chicago Crime Lab joined the conference to share nationally recognized best practices and discuss solutions to the prominent issues affecting local communities. The event also included local experts, including representatives from Project Weber/RENEW, the first state-sanctioned overdose prevention center in the nation located here in Providence, the Nonviolence Institute, and former Providence Police Chief and COPS Office Director Col. Hugh Clements, Jr.
Here is the press conference, edited for clarity and to be Rhode Island-centered. The entire press conference is watchable here.
Mayor Smiley: The time that I’ve spent with the Mayor's conference, whether it’s on the panels or in the hallways in between, the amount of problem solving, collaboration, and communication that we do among ourselves - and that the chiefs do among themselves - helps provide meaningful solutions, whether it’s access to new resources, training opportunities, or ways in which we can visit one another’s cities and implement strategies - is time well spent.
Despite some of the rhetoric in the recent federal election, crime in cities across America is down. I want to ask the mayors behind me to raise their hands.
[Every Mayor raised their hands.]
Mayor Smiley: If crime in your city is down over the last four years, please raise your hand. [All hands are raised.] Gun violence, murders, and nonviolent crimes are down across America because the strategies that we’re employing are working.
Providence is proud to be a leader in community policing. We’ve been ahead of the curve, and just this morning, we heard some stories about chiefs who came to Providence years ago to shadow our department.
But we don’t have all the answers, so we are here today to share some of our successes and listen to successes in other cities.
We’ve talked about the relationship between the chief and the mayor. My relationship with our chief here in Providence is exceptional. Colonel Oscar Perez is a trusted partner, a well-respected community member, and a good friend.
Colonel Oscar Perez: We must have these types of meetings and conferences. We have great conversations and great ideas to share. When we meet each other, we express and highlight some of the great work we do in the City of Providence and the great work the men and women of the Providence Police Department are doing to reduce gun violence.
It’s the same topic. It’s gun violence. It’s recruiting and retention. It’s the opioid crisis. I think it is important for us to be close to each other so that we interact as often as possible because we have the same issues and people committing the same crimes.
Reporter: You talked about the federal environment. What are your thoughts on this, and what do you hope will come out of this?
Mayor Smiley: I’ll speak for myself. The last two weeks have been stressful and exhausting. We have tried to react to sometimes contradictory guidance, for example, the funding freeze—it was frozen, unfrozen, and re-frozen, and now it is uncertain. We are trying to stay abreast.
The Mayor's Conference has frequently communicated with us about new executive orders. We will undoubtedly have conversations - both in the room and hallways - about immigration enforcement throughout our cities. Providence is proud to be a welcoming city, but at the same time, we are very conscious of the threats to federal funding, which we think will only make our cities less safe. So we will advocate to ensure that federal law enforcement funding - things like COPS grants https://cops.usdoj.gov/grants that all of us rely on, that have yielded positive results, [are preserved.]
Many hands went up, and crime is down because we are investing in our police departments and community partners. If they start to threaten things like federal grants to law enforcement and other public safety grants, our cities will be less safe. And so while there’s still a fair amount of uncertainty about what will or won’t happen - it’s only week two [of the Trump Administration] it’s certainly something we’re trying to stay abreast of. We’re trying to speak with one voice as America’s mayors - that federal support for public safety has yielded results. At the local level, we know what’s best for our community, and our communities can continue to bring those crime rates down if we can sustain the level of support we received in the past.
Reporter: Has any mayor or police chief dealt directly with ICE raids in their city at this point in the Trump Administration?
Colonel Perez: As I’ve stated, we have a policy. [Federal Immigration Authorities] have a job to do, and we have ours. But no, nothing that we have been involved with. Like I said, they got their job, we got ours, and we got a policy. We stick by it. We don’t ask about legal status. There’s a way that we act - especially if it’s criminal activity - but other than that, no,
Sometimes, when a criminal investigation is underway, they ask for our assistance regarding criminal activity. As chief of police, I want to ensure that our community understands that we are not and will never be immigration officers.
Reporter: Is there a policy for police officers who may have their views? What if an officer, on their own, decides to make a quick call [to ICE]?
Colonel Perez: In Providence, we have a policy in place, and we stick by that policy. We hold people accountable based on that policy. When you take the oath to protect and serve and to march to marching orders, that’s what you do. That’s what it is.
Reporter: Do you support or oppose the Providence City Council ordinance that wants to detail how the department deals with ICE?
Mayor Smiley: The Providence City Council has proposed a policy concerning cooperation with ICE but has not yet put it through the process. Right now, our existing policy, which predates the Trump Administration, is the right policy. That’s what we’re enforcing. The proposed ordinance, in most ways, models that policy precisely. However, there are some irrelevant issues with the draft ordinance. There are references to prisons. We don’t run prisons. Some other issues make it feel like it was model legislation taken from somewhere else. That [ordinance] will find its way through the city council committee process. Still, the intent of the ordinance is what our existing policy already is, so we don’t have an objection to the intent of the ordinance. However, as drafted, some issues need to be resolved.
Reporter: Could federal enforcement happen without the mayors or the police chief knowing?
Mayor Smiley: It’s possible. I’ll speak for Providence, at least. ICE could operate in Providence without us being notified. That has not been the past practice, but it is entirely possible. And to speak to the earlier questions around fear and concern, I think it’s true for the other Rhode Island mayors I’ve spoken with. I imagine it’s true for the other mayors around the region now; we are expending a tremendous amount of energy chasing down rumors. Whenever there’s a black SUV in the city that somebody doesn’t recognize, there’s a rumor that it’s an ICE raid. As far as we know, that has not happened in Providence in the last two weeks.
We understand the fear and concern, and we take that seriously. I want every city resident to feel safe and know they’re in a City where they are welcomed. I also want to make sure that every resident feels like they can trust and work with the Providence Police to help keep them safe, so we do take those rumors seriously. But there has been no federal raid in the City of Providence.
Reporter: As you know, we had at least four people in Providence die in recent weeks while experiencing homelessness. I’m sure other mayors have experienced this as well. The current policy is to put in a 30-day notice to vacate, but mostly they don’t find housing and move to other places, maybe into a neighboring city. Is that a sustainable model, and is that something we will suffer through for the next cold months?
Mayor Smiley: As you know, I’m starting my third year as mayor right now, and in my tenure, we have had deaths, overdoses, acts of violence, fires, and a particularly disturbing trend of sexual assault in encampments. It is my strong opinion that encampments are not safe and not suitable for people to live in. At the advocates’ request for the unhoused, we have implemented a 30-day notice before clearing encampments. And that has given folks the time to work with caseworkers, funded by the city, to find other placements.
As you know, we’ve made additional emergency warming shelters available in the city, and on any given night, beds or space are available. If it’s an emergency warming center, it’s not a bed. There are three emergency shelters in Providence, not counting the warming centers. We believe that that is a safer, more suitable place, in emergency circumstances, than encampments.
That will remain our policy as we work to expand shelter capacity and housing options - both transitional and long-term housing. It’s a challenge that we’re all facing - trying to balance the interests of the safety of those impacted. We can’t keep people safe in encampments. They’re not a suitable solution in the City of Providence. We’re happy to continue to receive feedback on ways to evolve our policy like we did with the 30-day notice, but long-term encampments in Providence are not an option.
Reporter: Can you describe the DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] policies in your city? Given the threats from the Trump Administration, are you considering changing, strengthening, or eliminating them?
Mayor Smiley: I can speak to Providence’s plan. DEI is embedded in what we do, and we don’t intend to change that. We serve a diverse community and employ a diverse workforce. Our customers are multilingual and of diverse backgrounds, and we’re proud of that fact. Our employees are multilingual and from diverse backgrounds. So DEI is integrated into what we do. There’s nothing to defund because it is part of our daily practice. It’s part of our employment practice. It’s part of our customer service practice and will continue to be.
This is one of these things coming down from [the Trump Administration] that we don’t know what it means... We will continue to adapt and react to whatever the latest federal letter, response, or executive order might be. Still, this is part of our daily employment and customer service practices here in Providence. It won’t change, and we don’t need to make those changes. We don’t believe that it might be rhetoric meant to fire up a certain base, but it’s not relevant to the day-to-day functioning of our city. That’s how we’re going to treat it here in Providence.
Reporter: With ICE threatening to go into schools all over the country and the City of Providence taking over the schools at some point, how are you guys going to tell parents their kids are safe?
Mayor Smiley: As you know, the City of Providence does not currently run our schools. The state does. The Rhode Island Department of Education, in partnership with the Rhode Island Attorney General, has put out clear guidance to parents, educators, and students about what their rights are and about what information is and is not shared. We do not collect the immigration status of our students and teachers, and school building officials have been trained on what to do if ICE were to arrive at the schools. That has not happened, and we will continue to defer to the guidance from the Attorney General and be happy to share that information with you if you don’t have it.
