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Crime & Safety

Grant to Fund "Cops-n-Community" Program

Program aims to make police more effective communicators

 A $50,000 matching grant will be used to support a new program in the Easton Police Department called “Cops-n-Community” over the next year, said city officials at Easton's city council workshop meeting Tuesday evening.

The program, awarded through the city's Weed and Seed program, strives to develop police relationships with the community and increase the level of police “customer service,” said Laura Acetta, director of the city's Weed and Seed program, which is administering the grant, which was matched by $5,555 of city funding.

Guillermo Lopez, a co-director of the National Coalition Building Institute's program, said the program has been successful in many cities, including Allentown and Bethlehem locally, and also in cities as far away as Seattle.

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“It's been most successful in neighborhoods where new communities are coming in,” said Lopez. “Relationships are everything. The closer we make our community with the police department, the stronger our community will be.”

Easton Police Department Chief Larry Palmer said the community policing program is not in response to any problem in the community or the police department.

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“What I wanted to do is be more proactive so that when or if we have a situation, we already have a relationship,” he said.

The program provides one-on-one training and coaching to help officers become more effective communicators.

“We learned there are certain skills that are not trained strongly enough (at the police academy),” Palmer said. “If we can improve communication, we can make (our officers) safer.”

Easton City Councilman Jeff Warren, who chairs the council's public safety committee, praised the new program.

“Maintaining a relationship between the community and the police is very important to successful policing,” Warren said. “This is going to be a successful program and I like the fact that it is citywide as well.”

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