Incumbent Councilman Gerber Porter Discusses Crime, Infrastructure
With the slate of candidates set for the Alexandria City Council race we continue our coverage of the folks running. Today we spoke with the incumbent, District 2 Alexandria City Councilman Gerber Porter. ABC 31 News’ Joel Massey has this report.
This is Gerber Porter’s first term on the City Council representing District 2. As with the other candidates, crime and public safety is forefront on his mind.
“The crime in our area needs to be abated it needs to be addressed,” Porter said. “You know there is a lot of good police officers out there. My relatives my friends I count them among the very good ones. The ones who don’t feel that way and are concerned that some of the wrongdoings they do might get caught on tape or video then that’s not the job for them.
“We wanted to make sure that we were not losing officers because of pay, because of salary. So we increased that matrix substantially. Now the persons whose been with APD 20 plus years, they were in a very good salary structure. It was the ones underneath that that we were losing. Because it was more lucrative to go somewhere else. And we fixed that.
“As far as the video goes. It does expose the persons who are bad, bad cops and if your internal bias, your personal bias is not what it should be for law enforcement then that’s not the job for those individuals.
Porter said that the council is looking at other ways of covering the district including installing infrared cameras that would take regular video and have the ability to see body temperature, as well as magnetic imaging which would show if a person was carrying a gun and what type of gun it is. He says that the city needs to bring back community policing.
“Community policing is going to be essential to stem the tide of rising crime. If we could get police officers embedded in each of our communities, where they are a part of the community, they become a known fixture.”
“I want to continue the work I’ve been doing. I’ve been really taking a keen eye to our budget I’ve been following the money. And to make sure it’s distributed in a fair and equitable manner.
“We have a lot of infrastructure that needs to be addressed, roads, streets, sewers water mains.”
Porter says that serving on the Council is rewarding but can be exhausting because of the number of calls from residents. He says that each call must be taken seriously no matter how small because to that person their issue is very important. Reporting in Alexandria Joel Massey ABC 31 News that Works for you.
Porter is running against Gary E. Johnson, Former Councilman Roosevelt Johnson, and newcomer Clarence Reed. If you would like to make your voice heard about public safety, crime and solutions there will be a public hearing after the regular city council meeting on Tuesday August 9th. Meetings start at 5pm.
