Public Safety: Making our Streets Safer for Everyone

Growing up in the foster care system and spending time as a homeless youth, Kriss understands all too well how crippling violence can be to our communities. As your state Assemblymember, Kriss will make public safety a major priority – safer streets and reducing violence in our communities shouldn't be just empty rhetoric. On the City Council, Kriss authored a violence response plan. But most of all, he understands that the best way to address violence is to prevent it – if people have housing, jobs and education, they are less likely to turn to crime and street violence. In the Assembly, Kriss will fight proactively to make our streets safer by expanding opportunities that provide an alternative to crime.

Kriss's Priorities

Oppose the Massive Expansion of Prisons: the prison population in California and the rate of recidivism are rising at alarming speeds, but building 40,000 additional prison beds costing the state over $15 billion over the coming decades is not the right answer. Kriss will stand up to Governor Schwarzenegger's tricks and demand that money be spent toward support and the services that individuals need to re-enter and become a part of society once again.

Prioritizing Health and Human Services: As a Councilmember, Kriss brought together a coalition of labor organizations, community non-profits, and service providers to preserve crucial safety net services for at-risk youth. We need a fighter who will ensure that the necessary youth service programs are in place to prevent violence. Locally, Kriss supported efforts to move toward a community policing model, successfully adding officers and social workers in places where they were needed, but emphasizing support services over incarceration. As a local leader, Kriss worked hard with social workers, labor unions, service providers, and city staff to secure funding for and establish a regional detoxification facility.

Education not Incarceration: Education will be Kriss's number one priority at the state level. With the threat of drastic cuts to the state budget, it is crucial that we prioritize education from the earliest stage possible. Kriss knows that the lack of funding for preschool and early childhood education is almost directly tied to the increase in spending on prison expansion. We need a leader who has the courage to stand up for what is right. Kriss will prioritize education at all levels, including universal preschool, adequate K-12 funding, and affordable post-secondary education.

Kriss's Track Record

• Sponsored a violence response plan, which would provide money for micro-grants, neighborhood watches, creative solutions to enhance communication between law enforcement and local small business owners, and enhanced local coordination.
• Successfully prevented drastic local budget cuts to health and human services by bringing together a coalition of labor unions, service providers, social workers, and advocates.
• Worked with business owners, neighbors, students, and customers, to increase police and social worker presence on one of the City's busiest commercial corridors.
• As a City Councilmember, got seven traffic circles installed in local neighborhoods to control speeding.
• Expanded neighborhood watch on the north and south ends of campus, involving students in effective partnerships with businesses and long-term residents. Sponsored a resolution calling on the Berkeley City Council to commit matching funding ($7,500) to support the Cal Campus Neighborhood Watch Program.
• Led the charge for targeted drug enforcement, increased funding for programs to stop drug dealing and clean up Telegraph Avenue.
• Increased funding for community disaster preparedness in the City and helped to create a neighborhood-driven model to educate and help prepare residents.
• Helped install 16 new streetlights in a neighborhood, added additional police patrols, got trees trimmed that were blocking existing streetlights.
• Co-sponsored a resolution granting $200,000 to Options' Recovery Services, so the treatment center can continue operating at current service levels
• Co-Sponsored a resolution granting $8,000 in City funds to be used to do basic repairs/maintenance to the Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution's (NEED) step van in order to keep it functional.