COPS and Community Aims for Better Understanding, Relationship

The beginning of a year-long process aimed at improving the relationship between city police and the community began Tuesday evening as the first community focus group for the city's COPS and Community program took place at La Pazza in the West Ward.

About 20 local residents gathered to share thoughts about community issues and how the local police interacts with the neighborhood. Participants were also asked to fill out an anonymous survey regarding their interactions and perception of the police force.

Guillermo Lopez, co-director of COPS and Community, said the aim of the program is to bring about a better relationship between the community and the local police department through better understanding and communication.

“It's not like an overnight thing. It's a process,” Lopez said. “But it takes good people like you to step up to be part of the process.”

A total of including Tuesday evening's, taking place in each neighborhood of the city, will be held over the next month.

Lopez will also hold separate focus groups with Easton police officers to get an idea of their concerns and experiences.

No particular incident or trouble prompted city officials to engage the program, which is being paid for by grant money, Lopez said.

“Their thinking was, 'we've got it pretty good—how can we make it even better?'” he said.

In a few months, representatives from the community chosen from the focus groups, and officers from the police department will be brought together for workshop sessions.

“When we look for people for the team, we look for solution-driven, coalition-minded people,” he said. “We're looking for people that are into solving problems.

“We use humor doing this,” Lopez added. “There's sometimes tears. That's how life is, in a neighborhood.”

Based in Bethlehem, the program was used there a few years ago, and has also been used by the Seattle police department. The communication skills that are emphasized can help keep the relationship between officers and the community healthier, he said.

“Police are human. They make mistakes, and unfortunately, they're not very good at cleaning up after them,” Lopez said. “What this team will be trained is, when there's an incident that stresses the community, you work to relieve that stress...Learning to say sorry goes a long way.”

He likened the situation to a disagreement between friends.

“When you like somebody, you work to keep the relationship,” he said. “What we've learned is police aren't necessarily taught...strong language skills and good communication. The skills to working with people who are under stress are learnable.”

Still, it's not all about changing police attitudes and behavior, Lopez said. The community must also work with the local officers and department to improve their neighborhoods.

“Change is not just about the police here. Change is universal,” he said. “This is not about training people to be snitches. It's about trust also.”

More about the COPS and Community program may be found at ncbi-cops.org