We can start the meeting.

Mr.

Hanlin, the uh committee uh people are here.

Um chairing it is AFA, Moda Santos, and with us tonight is also um uh Gerloch uh Bender and uh Santos.

Okay.

You can start the meeting.

Now uh tonight I want to discuss the priorities.

This is the um uh the intent of this meeting is to set out uh a few committee and administration uh profiles.

Um one of the things the first thing I want to bring up is something that uh I'm working on closely with the chief of police and several people.

Uh I want to form a quality of life task force.

Uh we have I I want to take the the the time to, you know, I started this my campaigning.

Every time I campaign, it's always on quality of life, and I feel I don't know that we've done enough.

Uh most of our complaints are with quality of life, whether it's noise of the cars or homes and the DCRs have helped us a whole lot, and uh nuisance abatement and so on and so forth.

But we need a lot more.

So I formed a committee, not a committee, I'm not gonna call it a committee, it's a task force.

I have uh people from the city, and on the advice of the uh the chief, which I thought was a great idea.

I also invited four members of um the city.

Uh um what?

What my bad, sorry.

Sounded pretty good there for a minute.

Could you do that again?

Something out of space.

And uh four citizens from different parts of the city to be on this task force.

The idea of this is um uh we have to support and figure out what we can do to make this city a lot better in quality of life.

I agree with the mayor and the city on focusing on health and environment and income and housing, jobs, and so on and so forth.

I think there's uh uh also uh we sometimes neglect uh the quality of life issues.

And when I talk about quality of life, I'm talking about garbage, wheat, uh dog feces, um, noise, cars, so on so and I I think as a council people that have been here for a while, this is what we get the most complaints on.

Um and I think that if I we get this this um task force together, what I want to do is have like a a brain child.

I want I handpicked everyone because I feel that these are the people that are going to I this is not going to be a bitch session about what's wrong with the city.

I want some I want this force, this task force to solve the problems.

I want to solve the problem of quality of life.

If we can spotlight certain things as what was spotlighted with the uh the the bikes, uh we passed that we didn't pass the legislation, but I guess it was Pat Brown that did, and because of that, we had very 75% knocked off, wasn't it, Chief?

I mean, we had very little problems.

So this is the things that I want the task force to be able to come up with their ideas, how we can do it.

Of course, we'll have the solicitor there, then we can come to council and pass legislation to help it not help, but eliminate the problems that we have here.

Especially the noise with the cars.

Mr.

Santos, uh, I think several months ago, five or six months ago, brought up the idea.

He worked with a city council person from uh Philadelphia where they have cameras, and uh this is something we this is something that that we could look at, something that we could kick around, some ideas like that where if we do come up with certain things like that, come to council, see if we can pass legislation, but we really have to do something about it.

And this task force will do nothing but quality of life issues.

We'll meet possibly once a month, every other month, but we will kick around all the ideas, ask questions why this didn't work, why did that didn't work, because as far as I'm concerned, in the past 10 years we've that I've been here, we've passed a lot of laws, but a lot of them get kicked to the curb.

Like you're talking about the um the fireworks.

I remember we passed that law not after 10 o'clock.

Well, I mean, there we have problems, and if we can find a way to have um to solve it, and I think we can solve it by citizens and the chief of police, council people, and uh people from the administration working together with nothing but because I think the rest of the city, we do have our problem with homeless, we do have, I mean, our streets are doing well.

I I have to commend our our our department.

Uh the streets were unmade amazing how well they were maintained.

We have a lot going on that's really good in the city, but we do have a problem with the nuisance.

It's really a nuisance.

So I'm I'm uh announcing it today that we're gonna start uh eventually very shortly.

Uh I have the uh committee together, I've got the people committed to it, and I will give you more information on it.

And I'm hoping Genesis will join us in it because she can communicate to the public what we're doing, and I think it's gonna be important for the public to know that we're doing something.

Um every time we have the meeting or something's put out there, they have to know, and they they have to be part of it.

They have to know that the tools that we give them, that they're gonna have to be using them.

You know, we do have the tools out there, and uh and I think if this is out there and they know that we have a uh this for this uh new uh committee going on that that we're gonna really address this.

I think it's going to help them, and if they know that we can help them in some ways, and if they can help themselves, that they can help their own neighborhoods.

I uh this is something I this is almost my last straw.

I don't know what else to do as far as quality of life for 10 years.

We've been trying, we've done things, we've disruptive conduct works and and different things like that, but um it's not enough because there's too many complaints about quality of life, and somehow, somehow we've got to fix it.

And hopefully, by having this task force to do nothing but work on the quality of life issues.

I I think that we could uh uh really move forward with this.

And uh Chief, is there anything you'd like to add to this?

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to speak.

And I do want to first uh say that quality of life isn't just a police issue, it's a citywide issue, and all of us play a part in it.

I want to take a moment to thank not only the police officers that work day in and day out to address many of the quality of life issues, but also our firefighters, our paramedics, our city streets workers, our public health, all of these workers play a part in making the city of Allentown that much better.

And I do, I was gonna wait for this for later for incident report update, but I did want to talk a little bit about um what happened in 24 to 25, I'm sorry, from 25 into 26.

Um, and quality of life is very much a concern for the police department, and we don't stop at that.

Oftentimes when I talk about reductions in violent crime, reductions and homicides, things of that nature, people accept it, understand it, but then want to know about what are we doing about the loud motor vehicles, what are we doing about the noise issues, what are we doing about those type of things?

And I think a collaborative effort is one of the best approaches.

When I was confirmed as chief here in 21, one of the things I said was about breaking down silos, and I think having a collaborative approach is one of the best approaches that we can do in addressing quality of life issues, because it may or may not be something that the police department can solve.

It could be something where it's a street issue that needs some attention from public works, or it could be something else.

But at the end of the day, I think it's about listening to the community, hearing what those issues are and putting together initiative strategies that address those things.

And I fully support council in its effort to draft legislation that's fair in addressing some of the issues so that it's educational, but it also holds people accountable, and through that, we will see uh those type of of quality of life issues be reduced completely or to uh candida's point, council personal candida uh AFA completely eliminated.

That would be great.

So I do support that.

Thank you, Chief.

And uh I I believe that the uh the people that we got together on this, we have a lot of people from the city, um, sweep the DC department, um, a couple council people, but I think a lot of the main thing is gonna be the three or four people from citizens that are going to be able to help us out and have them understand how it's not easy to pass different laws, how it's not easy just to say we're gonna do this and we're going to do that.

So we'll have solicitors there, uh a solicitor there, we're going to have um uh it's it's gonna I think this is gonna work.

This is uh something I believe that it's going to be about listening.

We need to listen and we need to find a solution, is is what it is.

It's not uh this is happening and why is it happening?

Well, let's figure it out.

And uh I want all positive, I want a lot of people uh that that are going to have positive questions, positive answers, and um I'm looking forward to this, and and I'll keep reporting to council uh individually and uh on on the dais on how um how we're doing and chief.

I'd also just like to be inclusive of the mayor's office as well because I think that's important.

Yeah, well, Mikhail is gonna be, yeah.

I I have some from the administrative office too.

Oh, yeah, I have that.

Um so I think that uh concludes.

Do they have any questions about this uh task force okay?

And the administration.

Um I um I you know, ever since I started in in city council, I have always talked about community policing.

And I think that this is one of the things that hopefully this tax force is gonna is gonna be working on that.

So I'm looking forward.

Yeah, that's something to everything.

We're bringing everything up, everything and anything that can help the city.

And if we just pass one law, if we can spotlight, uh, I'm gonna use Santos words, spotlighting one, like they did with the uh the uh bikes.

Uh if we could do that, say we can do this with the cameras.

If there's some way we can get these cameras that can that can pick up loud mufflers and and loud music and boom, we don't need the police.

We know it's almost like the uh the school buses.

There's a citation.

And uh we can always uh uh if we can do s anything, one thing in a year that will help the quality of life.

Like there's a lot of dumping that goes.

I hear a lot about dumping under the bridges and so on and so forth.

Maybe you could work with uh sweep on that, and there's there's so many things, but um and community policing, of course, is one thing that we've we've always discussed.

That'll definitely be uh yeah, because I'm a firm believer in it too.

And I think the the the nice thing about this tax force is gonna be that um you're gonna be involving the the community.

There's gonna be citizens.

So I'm looking forward for that.

It's a different variation of like the broken window theory.

You know, we can find different things to cite people for or or pass legislation for, and it's but I I I need the community, we need the community to help us with this.

And uh I'm so excited that the the chief is on board with this.

Uh we have the DCR nuisance abatement, we have Vicky Kissler.

We have we have a lot of the um a lot of the city and I I think that could the community involvement is is number one.

So I'm excited.

That's gonna help.

And they can it'll get them to understand also that it's not easy.

It's uh almost like I'm sure there's gonna be expectations.

Well, oh, this force isn't doing anything.

It's been two months and I haven't seen anything different.

I think the people that are out there in the community, and with the help of Genesis and letting people know, they'll see that it's not that easy to pass these laws.

What we want and what we can do are certainly always two different things.

And uh this is not gonna cost us anything.

Um this is just people trying to fix the city in any way we can.

Any other questions?

Statements?

I just had a I guess a clarifying question.

Um, did you narrow down who exactly is going to be on the task force, or is it more of a open meeting situation?

Just a little louder, I have trouble hearing.

It's okay.

Um have you narrowed down who exactly is going to be on the task force?

Do we know exactly how many community members we're going to have there and from what parts of Allentown?

Or is it just whoever's.

I do have the um, I've spoken to the four people.

There's four people that I that I've talked to that um are a possibility.

They have to get everyone has to get back to me and let me know.

Yes, this is I made the phone calls, um, let them know exactly um what it's all about, and need them to give me a firm answer on that.

And when I do, council will be the first to know who's on the uh uh as as far as the the city, I have uh a good idea uh who on the city, but you you're asking about the uh citizens.

I'm trying to get one from every part of the city, west side, east side, north side, gotcha, yeah.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna do the um the hardest one is the west side almost a little harder to get than than the uh inner city.

Um so I've spoken to uh in the past week I've spoken to several people, and um I just want them to know, and I believe the people that that that I'm interested in um want the same thing.

I just want them to know I don't want them to come in there and complain about everything about the city.

I want them to help us fix the city, you know.

Um we all have complaints, but you know, we all we should have some answers too.

Um but it yeah, I'll uh when I do, I will give the things and Mike and Mike will send it send it out to everyone who's gonna be on the on that.

Um I just like to add, um, you know, it's it's gonna be great working with you and and um Miss Moda, Miss Antos on this.

Um I think it's uh it's something we talked about two weeks ago about forming this committee, and I I would encourage maybe some more residents from center city, just because that's probably where most of the quality of life um violations kind of occur.

So maybe um because of density, maybe just add another person or two from center city.

Just my suggestion.

Um just because there's so many issues.

But there's a lot of work to do to your point, Miss Hafa.

Um, you know, we have to we have to understand the current ordinances, we have to understand what we're working with.

We have to um understand legally what we can do, and then we need to really focus on what we can do to prevent it going forward.

A lot of it goes back to messaging.

This cannot be a um we're gonna find everyone to death on everything.

It's it's about helping residents understand you know what the expectations are and uh and try and make um make the city just a little bit better for everyone.

So I'm anxious to play a part in that, so thank you.

Yeah, it's not going to be um the first meeting.

I I'm I'm really gonna make it known that this is everyone's opinion is going to count.

Everyone's opinion.

I don't care if you're the west side, east side, downtown, uh, uh the chief of police, Vicky Kisser, whoever it is, everybody's opinion is going to count.

And it's got to be positive.

And I think this is the only way we and I think we're all in agreement about the quality of life.

This is what our biggest problem is.

Uh the police department's doing their job.

Everybody at the parks, everything.

As far as the city is concerned as a whole, except I agree with m Ms.

Uh Gerlock, we could do more with the homeless.

Um that's her thing, and I'm willing to help her with it.

This is my thing.

I am hell-bent on the quality of life in this city.

And um and and hopefully this this will work out.

And everybody's opinion counts.

And when we come to council meetings, and I'm asking for letting you know the reports and so on and so forth, all of your opinions are certainly gonna count also.

Anything from the public?

All right.

Um that that'll conclude the uh that part of it now.

Um I do believe what do we do?

Do we have anything from you, Cynthia?

No.

Community pleasing.

Chief.

Good evening, council.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to speak.

Uh, what I'm gonna be doing now is something new.

Yes, we have an incident dashboard that any resident can look at and see what's happening, but I'm going to make a specific report for council to review, and on there is gonna have what type of incidents we're having, what sort of quality of life issues we're seeing, and that type of thing.

So expect that in the within the next week that you should have, and then we'll be able to tell you the DCR's disruptive conduct reports that we're getting, how that's looking like for 25.

Um, I'm seeing here that there was actually a decrease in the amount of noise complaints that we received from last year, the types of calls that were going on, and also what the end of the year stats look like.

We're finalizing that right now.

But some of the things I want to share with you is that for 2025 violent crime was down uh 2.36 points from 2024, and in 2025, property crime is down 132.15 points uh from 2024.

Our officers are doing their job, but it's not just them alone.

It's the good people of the city of Allentown that are helping out in investigations, providing information, saying enough is enough when they see the face of folks that are choosing to do crime in our city.

It's important to know that our residents know that the Allentown Police Department is there for them.

We are their advocates, and we're here to make sure that folks are safe.

And the outcome that we want to have is a safe, secure, clean city.

And we would make sure that people know that we are also willing to listen.

This job isn't done alone, it's not done in a vacuum.

So I'm very pleased with council first passing the budget so that we can fund the things that we need to do.

And as we grow as a police department, you know, we will we will attract like-minded individuals that want to serve our city and its residents for years to come.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Are there any questions for the chief?

Mr.

One.

Um, do you know is the CIS data uploaded on that dashboard?

We are meeting in February to discuss how data is going to be distributed so it'll be able to be looked at and see what type of impact it is having.

Okay.

So it's going to take some time to kind of arrange how the medium is to be able to see that information and also how to put it out for public review.

But for council, you will be apprised of normal updates.

Okay, because one thing um I know when I've looked at the data, I'm talking like data's probably four years old by now, but determining what is a mental health call is sometimes challenging.

Like it you s I mean, the ones that it's um clearly um um checking on, you know, someone's uh a welfare check.

I I don't that's not necessarily a mental health call, that could be anything.

So, like, is there a is there a uh definition, like how do you determine what is a mental health call, and then will the dashboard, once the CIS data is um part of that, will it be in just like very layman's terms, like uh welfare check, mental health, um I don't know, disorderly conduct things that are more CIS.

So from a mental health data perspective, we are going to look at analyzing that data and being able to produce a product that would be easily understood.

So that all that is being worked out right now as we speak.

Okay, all right.

I look forward to that.

Thank you.

And then I I thought we were gonna do a separate thing for community policing, so I didn't say anything.

But just uh I look forward to that that that committee and those conversations uh that will happen.

I do think it's important kind of following up um, I think it was councilperson Napoli who said um we can't just like find people to uh to death, but along those same lines, um, I think it's important when we look at public safety to look at our communities, the assets in our communities, not just the deficits.

Um and utilizing those assets like the schools, the corner stores, the businesses, and incorporating them into a community policing model.

Um because if in my experience, um there's only usually a handful of troublemakers in a neighborhood.

Most people in a neighborhood are just kind of living their lives.

Um it's it seems like um I don't say easier because I'm not a police officer, but it seems like being able to target the neighborhoods and the specific people who are causing most of the issues from what I've just read, uh, seems to be an effective approach, at least conceptually.

I don't know, it is on the streets.

But that is that is an accurate assessment of policing in certain ways.

Part of the underlying function of that is being able to have to for people to have confidence in being part of that process.

Sometimes people don't want to take part in that because they fear retaliation.

But we want to create systems where people are confident and they're not afraid of reporting incidents, crimes, things of that nature.

And then also finding the most effective way, be it through police through partnerships with our nonprofits, uh, you know, jobs, education, different opportunities that contribute to public safety.

And I and I believe that we have been engaged in many of these things and in identifying people that probably do the most problems here.

And I'm very pleased with our investigators and the approach that they take because they conduct very serious investigations that hold people accountable that choose to engage in those types of crimes.

My hope is that those individuals will not engage in those type of crimes, but change their lifestyle, focus on education, focus their energies on contributing to being a good citizen in our city to make it that much better.

And to your point, uh councilperson Gerlock, we very much need the community to assist us with this because this job isn't done in a vacuum.

I I appreciate that.

And um, yeah, because like when I think about assisting, I think about someone who runs a corner store or someone in the neighborhood might be more likely to talk to someone at I don't know, promised neighborhoods than they would be to an officer.

So, like those types of relationships where the folks who are most relatable are in the street in the neighborhood, and there's like a very direct connection with the police, not just like a you know, event type of thing, but like a very like day-to-day relationship.

There's many different dynamics at work, and we very much want to embrace that towards a positive end.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Anyone else?

Anyone from the public make a statement on anything with public safety?

All right, this meeting is adjourned.