The topics at a Public Safety Town Hall ranged from bringing down the number of domestic violence cases to increasing citizen involvement. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus came armed with hopeful numbers.
He told the crowd of about 50 people that major crime categories are trending in the right direction. He said the Violent Crime Task Force, which is a multi-agency initiative, is making lots of arrests and confiscating guns, drugs and cash.
But, some say, they believe it is not enough.
Celina Escamilla says she came to speak for her tiny daughter, Marina. “When you see the news and you see these kind of scary stories, we just wanted to hear what's being done,” Escamilla said. Escamilla said she and her husband try to be involved in neighborhood groups online to keep up with important trends.
Overall, Escamilla said she is happy with how easy it is to stay informed using the internet. “Communication from the city is very, very good and I would say we're grateful because a lot of us, we just don't have the time to be attending all the meetings but online you can see everything,” Escamilla said.
Mariluz Resendiz told McManus more needs to be done to help victims of domestic violence because too many women are dying at the hands of their intimate partners. "We're seeing a higher rise of women being labeled mutual combatants in intimate partner violence, so not only are we not seeing the perpetrators being held responsible, but we're seeing women, as they attempt to defend themselves, being labeled mutual combatants."
Resendiz said she has seen too many cases of victim blaming. “We need to understand that there are not enough laws and resources to allow a true escape of a domestic violence victim,” Resendiz said.
Resendiz said she believes more needs to be done for sexual assault victims as well.
Remembering a recent incident in which a detective was disciplined for not pursuing sex assault cases, Resendiz said caseloads in that important division are too high. “They're being given 20 to 30 cases per month, per detective, and the national average is anywhere from five to six, so I'm concerned they're combing through these cases. I don't want them to come through as a McDonald's drive through,” Resendiz said, adding that every victim deserves to have their case handled thoroughly.
“You know, these are victims. They need to be addressed. These perpetrators are going back into the community and harming other people. These issues need to be addressed by the city in terms of staffing,” Resendiz said.
Cambray Sullivan said she came to observe and she noticed she was one of the only younger people in the room.
“I think it's important that the community be involved and get to know each other. It's good to know what's going on around you,” Sullivan said.
She called the crowd older and too conservative. She said she hopes more people will get involved in this important process. Sullivan said, “The police are constantly being like hit with all the same opinions so they're going to think, 'oh, this is what the community wants,' you know? But if there had been more diverse opinions, I think it would have been really great.”
McManus said he hopes to hear from more people next Saturday when he will repeat his update at another forum at the UTSA downtown campus.
McManus shared the following statistics with the crowd, indicating progress made from the inception of the program in 2017 through now.
Task Force Totals
- 10,600 arrests
- 3,858 felony warrants executed
- 1,567 firearms recovered
- 946 gang members arrested
- 506,618 grams of drugs confiscated
- $1.8 million in cash seized