I have worked hard to serve those with mental health needs, collaborating with various stakeholders in the community to create a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) with our police force. I led the effort to help fund the CIT pilot program at the city and cultivated support from colleagues to implement this initiative through its passage. This important accomplishment pairs mental health professionals with police officers responding to calls to people who are experiencing a mental health emergency. This improves the lives of residents and results in fewer escalations between law enforcement and individuals with mental health needs.
I have developed an understanding of the public safety needs in our community. This has allowed me to determine where money should be allocated to fill these crucial gaps. I have been a champion for community policing and have taken action on assisting officers in reaching their goals and outcomes in resources to keep our community safe. I identified money to secure funds for more equipment and better facilities for our police department. The El Paso Police Academy has also added an additional class of recruits each year to increase the number of officers on the street.
For decades, police facilities and equipment were being used past their life span because of inadequate funding. I am happy to be part of a council that fought to purchase 300 new police vehicles over the next 10 years, improvements for existing command centers, and a new Central Command Center in the heart of the city. We also secured funds for fire equipment, including safety masks and ventilators, as well as other essential equipment.