With the
departure of our police director, Toney Armstrong, I believe it is time for a
conversation on a new meaning for the commonly used term “public safety”.
Generally, this term is used to refer to the presence of police officers or has
some relation to law enforcement. While I believe that law enforcement should
play a major role, I do not believe that the current trends should continue as
they have. Society has changed, morals have evolved and what is socially acceptable
is not what it used to be. Taking those facts into consideration, it is time
for a new, fresh approach that involves the public.
In my
opinion, public safety should be the primary responsibility of the public.
There is a term that has become widely used- “stakeholder”, in reference to
those that should be consulted with when things are about to take place in
communities. That term, while it has the potential to carry much weight, has
been used too loosely and it has not been truly defined.
What is a
stakeholder? Businessdictionary.com defines the term as a person with an interest or concern in something,
especially a business. A stakeholder has ownership, or stake in whatever the
subject is. When we are discussing community stakeholders, they should have a
sense of ownership of the community. Ownership equals the assumption of
responsibility. Anything short of that strips that individual from the right be
called a stakeholder. 
Stakeholders
have the responsibility to guide the culture and assist in setting parameters
of what will be tolerated in the community. Stakeholders should rally the
community around those values and see that they are being followed. We have the
awesome responsibility of caring for and developing our environment.
For far too long
we have not assumed the roll of stakeholder and we have reassigned, unfairly,
the duty of setting our culture and parameters of socially accepted behavior to
law enforcement. Law enforcement should be our last option, not our first
choice. The first line of defense MUST BE the stakeholders.
To stakeholders,
this is my position: no longer can violence be a viable option. I challenge
each of you to speak up and calm down conflicts. We know when things are about
to take place. Instead of videoing to share, step in and stop. Use the
influence of your relationships. We have the ability to create our environment.
We determine how safe we will be. Violence can no longer be tolerated and
cannot remain the norm in our communities. Stakeholders must say, “We don’t
behave like this”.
