Welcome to The Newsfeed.

We're here in Tacoma, a city under fresh leadership with a new mayor, city manager and chief of police.

I had a one on one conversation with Mayor Anders Ibsen, who campaigned on addressing the complexity of public safety.

During our talk, he addresses how the city should go about it.

The federal immigration detention center in the city, and Pierce county's controversial sheriff.

The Tacoma police department has had a history of disproportionately policing black residents.

When you were running for mayor.

You said people deserve to feel safe, not just reacting to crime, but the city needs a strategy to address its root causes.

How will residents feel these changes?

It's not just about numbers, it's how you show up and whether you're showing up at all.

And so I'm so proud of our newly appointed chief, Patty Jackson, for example, for not just waiting for a crisis or worse, to show up and to meet with leadership, but for taking the initiative along with myself, other members of the council, with members of our faith community, with our black leaders, with members of all sorts of important community organizations to bring the conversation to them.

In between the meetings and before things come to a head.

But we also need to make sure that we're investing on the front end by making sure that there are job opportunities for our youth, that contracting for small businesses from our black community and from other communities have adequate access to opportunities to do business with our city and in our city, for example, so that we're not just reacting to problems, but building wealth, building real opportunities, and leading on the front end.

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank has been under fire for several controversial issues in November.

Voters will decide whether the Pierce County sheriff should be appointed by the county executive rather than elected.

In addition, Sheriff Swank's term would be reduced early by two years.

Swank has argued that county leaders do not want an independently elected sheriff pushing back.

Mayor, Where do you stand on this?

Well, speaking for myself, because the city council hasn't taken a position on this, but I myself am in support.

I think it's thoughtful because there are some things you shouldn't politicize.

You shouldn't politicize who gets a business license, for example, you should just follow the law and get an act according to regulation.

You shouldn't politicize how people are taxed.

People should just follow the rules, and it should be based on objective, knowable statistics.

And you shouldn't politicize public safety.

Public safety should be run by trained professionals who meet an objective standard, and how you're treated shouldn't be based on the whims of politics.

It should be based on impartial professionals enforcing the law.

A report last April by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights found that over a decade between January 2015 and January 2025, the Tacoma Police Department had a pattern of responding poorly, if at all, to calls for help from those detained at the facility.

We've been reporting on the detainee concerns of the northwest ICE Detention Center.

You're new as mayor, but from what you know, what was the reason for the poor police response?

I've personally visited detainees.

I did it as part of the learning process that I did to become the mayor.

I spoke with a gentleman who was a lawful green card holder for years, and ICE threw him in there when he went to a court hearing.

Despite being married to an American citizen for years, I have literally seen and heard about the injustices with my own eyes and ears.

It is not lost on me.

I can't comment on ongoing investigations or police work, right?

I mean, that's not appropriate for me to to get in the way of professionals doing that.

What I will say is that the city has been consistently showing up in Olympia, for example.

I'm Paris Jackson, thanks for watching.

To see more from our sit down with Tacoma's new mayor, visit Cascade PBS.org slash The Newsfeed.