So I'm calling the meeting of the Citizens Police Review Board to order.

As uh we traditionally do, uh, we're gonna start with introductions, but I thought we'd start with Stephanie this time and just move around the table in another direction.

Yeah.

Stephanie Brown, special projects manager, and staff liaison.

And all of our city management fellow.

Steve Jeffrey, Vice Chair.

Doug Hunt, Chair.

Ed Robinson, board member.

Lynn Bergen, member.

Harry Castello, board member.

Steph Yochum, Human Rights Commission.

I'm Richard Harrell, Assistant Chief of the Columbia Police Department.

Thank you.

Oh, wow.

I think Steven beat you to it.

I think you seconded, as it turns out, Steph.

So moved and seconded to approve the agenda.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

And similarly, the approval of the minutes, which everybody should have had a chance to look at.

Do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

I'll make a motion.

I'll second, Jeffrey.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, good.

Looks like our old business is not there is none this morning or this afternoon.

So we're going to move on to new business, which I'm really looking forward to.

Um, which is the presentation that Demarcus Thomas Brown is going to give us.

Our when did you actually start, Demarcus?

What was your first day?

March thirty March thirty first.

I don't doubt that board members are going to uh have some questions and things like that they want to discuss with you.

But I think the best thing to do is I mentioned to you in the email is just for you to begin and and talk about your the work of the office and explain what it's all about and what your perspective on it is.

So for sure.

And I appreciate the invite, uh Doug, and I'm I'll just go through and then if there's any questions, I don't know how the format is here.

If there's any questions, I'm open to answering any questions that come after the um the initial presentation.

So I'll try to make this um pretty quick uh for you all.

So uh this introduction for the office, it was established in 2023.

And uh it the office aims to coordinate the development, implementation, and evaluation, prevention, intervention, and community enrichment.

One of the uh key things starting out uh in the ND office, and this was, you know, they say job description and then other duties assigned uh as they come up.

I think one of the other duties assigned as they come up that was not necessarily spilled out in the position was education and educating the general populace on what violence prevention is.

Um that synonymous terms of prevention and intervention don't exist, that prevention is its own lane, intervention and is its own lane, and there's a intermediary of the two basically working together in the in the right now to one to feed the other.

So that that was um a surprise uh to have to kind of educate community on these things.

And so um, but I'm happy to do so.

So that came with the office.

Uh the other thing I will say with with this slide is that as we see there it was established in 2023, and so there are a lot of people that could not wait until there was someone appointed in this office, and all the questions from a year and some change came through the floodgates.

So actually it was two years, because 23 is 2025.

So I was uh hired March 31st.

So two years of questions.

Um and they're still coming in.

So that was the other uh aspect to this as well.

So I I won't read what's there uh with what what I'm tasked with.

I will actually go through um that as we go through the presentation, but it's just there just uh for when I present, just so the under people understand what the office is about, community-oriented system of care we'll talk about.

So the Office of Violence Prevention on this slide here just shows uh we were in Columbia, South Carolina, uh learning from how they have been able to work with their uh both their their violent crime and their um crimes against property and and the unhoused situations and all that, all those separate things.

And what was interesting to hear the deputy chief there explain about their office of violence prevention was that he was their their that office and the the director there and all that they he was like the quarterback for for their team, and I mean you had different programs that he was working with from the United Way to uh their homeless uh or unhoused excuse me outreach uh for to their re-entry and and recovery outreach.

He was he was the quarterback, their office was the quarterback that kept everyone connected and cohesion was working through the Office of Violence Prevention to make sure there was this this flywheel of collaboration, if you will.