Ward 3 resident Peter Church seeks committee seat, urges data-driven police oversight

Peter Church introduced himself during public comment and said he is interested in an open committee seat. "My name is Peter Church. I live in Ward 3," he said, and described himself as an engineer who wants to help aggregate and analyze police data to inform committee work on crime patterns and response strategies.

Church said a data-driven approach could help the committee understand where crime is concentrated, what officers respond to most often and whether issues are driven by calls for service versus patrol activity. "Things that we could collect together, and talk about to see what would be are we lacking in our approaches," he said, and emphasized the value of simple baseline questions such as "How often is this happening? How many? Who's calling them?"

Commissioners and staff discussed the application process and ward-representation guidelines. Staff confirmed the current allocation: two representatives for Ward 1, two for Ward 2 and one for Ward 3. Commission members expressed a desire to increase Ward 1 and Ward 2 representation and asked staff to make application information available. One commissioner asked Church to connect with staff before the end of the meeting to complete the application process.

The public comment period also included praise for the police department from another resident and a Zoom speaker named Roland, who thanked officers and the chief for their compassion during the community27s recent suicide response. Commissioners acknowledged the comments but made no appointment during the meeting; they indicated policy review and committee vacancies will be addressed at a future agenda.