The mayor travels to the District of Columbia and tells how federal funding is used to ensure public safety to reduce violence in Toledo

TALEDA, Ohio – On Friday, Mayor Wade Kapshukevich represented Toledo in the country’s capital after President Joe Biden asked him to talk about how the city is implementing US rescue plan dollars.

The mayor said the White House wants the money to be spent on public safety. Toledo has been recognized for the way it uses public funding.

Kapshukevich said it was an honor to be invited, but Toledo still has work to do lost three lives as a result of the violence from Friday.

on the topic: The groups are holding a prayer walk against armed violence in the city

“I had the opportunity to talk quite widely with President Biden and learned a few things,” Kapshukevich said.

Toledo has received $ 180 million from the U.S. Rescue Plan, and the mayor says the city will use as much as 33% of that to provide public safety for things like hiring more police and expanding shooting.

Although the city plan attracted the attention of the White House, the mayor said the violence this weekend has not forgotten him.

“I realize I was invited to the White House to celebrate Toledo’s strategy on how we use ARP dollars to ensure public safety and how detached it is from reality when last Toledo we had two more terrible events last weekend,” he said. .

The mayor acknowledged how difficult it is to reduce violence, but said it starts with people involved.

“What is happening in Toledo this year is 100% of these cases, not the majority, all of them were revenge or revenge for some real or imagined crimes,” the mayor said.

Kapshukevich said he used the visit as an opportunity to hear from a dozen other mayors and police chiefs about what they are doing to reduce violence and killings.

“[Detroit] deploys its police officers around troubled establishments on Friday and Saturday nights, differently than other times during the week. I noted it down, ”Kapshukevich said.

He also noted the importance between city and federal prosecutors and looked at what role this could play in improving city security.

“If there’s a way we can work with federal officials and possibly accuse one of these people of causing violence in a federal crime. It’s not only better restraint, but it also means a person faces more severe punishment than he or she otherwise, ”he said.

From that meeting at the White House, the mayor said he plans to talk to the head of the King, city judges and several other key people who could help reduce violence in the city.