City Commission Candidate Curtis Richardson Discusses Blueprint, Police, Protests and Crime

City Commission Seat 2 candidate Curtis Richardson appeared on Above the Fold with Tallahassee Reports Editor Steve Stewart on Thursday, Sept. 24 to discuss his campaign. Richardson is running against Bill Schack which will be decided in the general election.

At the beginning of the episode, Richardson was asked about what his priorities would be during his next four years as a City of Tallahassee Commissioner if he wins again.

Richardson first commented on “carry-over issues,” mentioning how his biggest priorities involve “getting a handle on violent crimes in our communities.”

He said public safety is a top priority, and he wants to “make our streets safe for citizens, visitors and guests.”

Richardson was then asked about the criticisms of Blueprint and if he thought it any of it was justified.

“I was there 20 years ago when I started on the original Blueprint Committee, and we took a lot of public input,” he said. “Over 60% of voters voted on projects that were identified. Projects were generally brought in on time and were done under budget.”

He expressed feelings of disconnect from people who haven’t seen what the organization has done in the past for the City of Tallahassee.

Richardson also commented on the grand jury findings for the three recent police-related shootings.

He said he “didn’t know that anyone could argue what the grand jury found.”

He stated he had spoken to attorneys involved who seemed to “agree with the pronouncements that grand jury came back with…hopefully with some of the reforms that we are considering, we can prevent these kinds of things from happening in the future.”

Richardson reiterated that he wanted to “make sure that our young people understand that they have a constitutional right to protest; we encourage that.”

He continued, “That’s how young people are engaged with their government and have their voices heard. There are conditions on that. We require a permit. Even when the permit hasn’t been obtained, we still have accommodated those protests, but they have to be safe.”

When asked about his thoughts on whether or not we have a police brutality problem in Tallahassee, Richardson cited reports of negative interactions in the community with “a few officers in our department” while commenting he “wouldn’t say there is a brutality problem.”

Richardson went on to mention that “the process of reform has begun at our local police department,” and he has been working with the review board to investigate policies and procedures that can be improved.

He ended the interview with his perspective on his personal experience on what he feels is tremendous progress for racial equality.

“There was a lot of segregation when I came to Tallahassee in 1974,” he said. “A racial separation is starting to occur again, so we need to continue to make sure we bring the community together, have positive dialogue and all of us move forward together as a community.”

You can listen to the full interview here.