Menlo Park police arrest four men allegedly breaking curfew, having handgun in car

‘When guns are outlawed ONLY outlaws will have guns’

Has the police department enacted any of the #8can’twait policies that allegedly can decrease police violence by 72%?

@Kathleen,
Heard in tonight's Town Hall call with Police Chief Dave Bertini that all 8 are embodied in either MPPD policy or training.

Does anyone actually support dismantelling the police dept.

"Does anyone actually support dismantelling the police dept."

YES - the city should contract with the Sheriff for police services - it will get better service at a lower cost, eliminate future pension liabilities, free up space in city buildings and lower the ego count.

Peter, in response to the question "Does anyone actually support dismantling the police dept.", you say "YES". I think you actually mean "NO". The police department would not be dismantled in the sense that current hardline protestors are demanding. It would just transition to a police department managed by the sheriff instead of by the City of Menlo Park.

Menlo Park would still have police services, and probably better police services. It would just be paying much, much less money for this, so it wouldn't be in a budget deficit situation like it's in now.

Multiple other communities in the peninsula, including affluent Woodside and Portola Valley, have done the exact same thing and have had no degradation in police services.

I just didn't want to see any headlines saying "Carpenter says let's dismantle the police" since I know that's not what you mean, but there are definitely entrenched forces that economically benefit from the current regime (the union) who will try very, very hard to keep things the way they are.

Thanks Semantics, I think Peter misunderstood the question,


There are actually wingnuts in Minnesota that including local, state and Federal politicians are on record wanting to dismantle police depts. and the jail system and have some sort of self policing system.

I was just curious if any wingnuts locally support that.

I DID misunderstand the question - I believe that the city should contract with the Sheriff for police services - it will get better service at a lower cost, eliminate future pension liabilities, free up space in city buildings and lower the ego count.

Having listened to the discussions on "defunding police departments" I hear two alternative definitions:

1 - Defund a current police department and create a new public safety agency

2 - Reallocate some of the funds currently allocated to police department and use those funds to increase investment in social services.

I oppose the first alternative and support the second alternative.

Menlo Park currently spends about 1/3 of its budget on police services.

I think we would be a healthier community if we spent no more than 25% of our budget on police services and then devoted the freed up resources to better social services. And there is an easy way to reduce our police services from 33% to 25% - contract with the Sheriff to provide even better services than we now receive for a significantly lower cost.

A useful perspective:

"Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and housing, and expanding the use of community mediation and violence interruption programs."

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