Police Chief Tony Batts was interviewed on "Straight Talk with Art Levine" recently and warned about cutting the Police Department's community outreach budgets. Under budget cuts approved by the City Council on Tuesday, the police are losing their ability to do crime prevention and intervention, and now will be focusing mostly on suppression.
It's essential that the public views police as part of the community, otherwise "police departments will only be looked upon as an occupying army," Batts told Levine.
On hiring his replacement when Batts goes to Oakland, it would be "a tragedy" to hire from outside of the department he said, because he has many capable deputy chiefs and commanders. Departments should only hire externally when a department wants a change, he said.
Watch the full interview below:
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