Mayor Adrian Perkins: Working together, we can continue to move Shreveport forward- part 3
This is part three of a three-part series.
The further we get from addressing our short-term response to crime, the more we rely on the community in its prevention. Crime prevention is seeking to create an environment of opportunities, so citizens choose productive alternatives. This could also be called the long-term approach to crime reduction. I will start with our first responders’ role, which is to work with citizens to bridge the civil/law enforcement divide. Another bridge we must focus on in the prevention of crime is the digital one to connect east and west Shreveport. If that bridge is not built quickly, the lack of technology will only breed poor education, which we already must address through investments in early childhood education. Education and learning must be expanded beyond the classroom and school year to all students, not just the ones who come from families that can afford it. Ultimately, prevention is the broadest area of attack, so while there are other ideas that I will mention, the breadth of options and time available make this the best place to nip public safety problems in the bud. Working together along these lines of effort, we can make Shreveport safer.
It’s no secret that decades of over and irresponsible policing created a civil/law enforcement divide in the African American community, so it should come as no surprise that we can’t repair the damage done overnight. Hence, the importance of consistent emphatic Community Oriented Policing. The Shreveport Police Department is creating programs like Coffee with a Cop and reinstituting quarterly Neighborhood Walks that I often attended to meet citizens during non-crisis moments. To bridge the gap, it is imperative that citizens take advantage of these programs. We need these types of initiatives and commitments to grow trust, and ultimately transform a 400-person policing effort into a 200,000 one with citizen involvement.
Bridging the digital divide is another must for the sake of public safety. Understanding this need, the city created and published a map that captures the digital divide in our city. It allows us to identify those digital deserts and, in partnership with our libraries, push reliable high-speed internet where it is most needed. This took ingenuity and the will to do something that had never been done so that we could create an entire lifecycle of opportunities. This gives all children access to online tools, minimizing potential word gaps. Tracking the deficiencies in technology will provide disadvantaged students with access to the same educational tools as their peers, and adults have more remote learning and job opportunities, making it more possible to support families.
More than 5,000 children in Caddo Parish are considered chronically truant. During the pandemic, students were required to transition from classroom to virtual learning and many didn’t even log on to the internet, likely because of a lack of access, so imagine the impact that gap will have on their learning, future job prospects, and the implications to public safety when we support digital inclusion initiatives. Creating a digital bridge will undeniably make us safer.
Educational opportunities are obviously a theme in crime prevention, and no emphasis is more potent than early childhood education. Research compiled by the Community Foundation of North Louisiana shows that high-quality pre-K programs have significant short- and long-term impacts on children and their communities. In order to attain universal pre-K, the City invested $215,000 alongside the Community Foundation to meet state match in 2020. We are currently exploring options to provide universal childcare to further support families from the cradle to the classroom. Citizens can assist by
first lobbying state leadership to mandate and fund universal pre-K. The next step is pushing the state to provide more funds for birth to three-year-old childcare. This would remove the need for our program, so we can shift funding to other areas of support, but it would also provide a stronger foundation for tens of thousands of young people across Louisiana. Investing in early education will better prepare all children for kindergarten, allowing them to start their educational path on solid footing, as opposed to starting behind which is usually the path to finishing behind or not at all.
Learning, however, goes beyond the classroom. The City of Shreveport has 16 community centers and more than $15 million has been spent on capital improvements at community centers, parks and outdoor recreation facilities. Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR) provides more than 100 different activities for youth in our community ranging from athletic to educational and learning opportunities, for an average of 6,000 kids annually. Kids want to do more than just learn in the classroom, so we have expanded our summer internship program from 18 to over 150 students. Citizens can assist here by supporting the expansion of the public initiatives but also using their resources to sponsor or coach youth sporting teams and camps.
Again, crime prevention is the largest area we can invest in now with the greatest potential. Students want and are entitled to safe and engaging environments for play, so it is important that we continue to invest in public facilities for those less fortunate youth whose families can’t afford playground equipment in their backyard. Adults too want to enjoy themselves outside of education and work, so it is important that we build a strong middle class to attract private entertainment companies to our city so citizens don’t have to drive to Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, or be idle. We can invest more into the arts, and mental health services, or attain even more livable wage jobs, and we can actually celebrate our economic development wins instead of only pointing out our communal faults. Citizens can cheer on fair wages, middle-class growth, support public investments into parks, and every other initiative pointed out that will keep us safe in the long run. We have opportunities to address truancy, early childhood education disparities, and the digital divide alongside our stakeholders to move Shreveport forward.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Mayor Adrian Perkins: Working together, we can continue to move Shreveport forward- part 3
