This is just one of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Plenty for a police response
City Council Public Health and Public Safety Committee, 6 p.m. Monday. Councilors explore traffic enforcement, gun violence and mental health issues, starting with asking how the city’s police officers decide to stop pedestrians and cyclists for infractions and asking interim police chief Charles Femino to end the use of unmarked patrol vehicles for traffic enforcement.
There are agenda items too on “unmet public health needs” identified by Somerville’s nonprofits and service providers and to say whether Mass General Brigham can help provide mental health services – including a gun buyback program at least in part “focused on those who may be a danger to themselves.” That’s accompanied by calls for a report on all Somerville gun firings since Jan. 1, 2018, and to hear progress on establishing a safe consumption site for drugs.
Councilors also want to know the percentage of requested traffic details for construction projects that have been filled by Somerville police officers and outside officers for the past three years, and whether requests have gone unfilled. Finally: The mayor is asked to fill two vacancies on the Biosafety Committee “and restore it to a functional body.”
Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
A stronger
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