Reflecting on the past weeks since joining the Citizen’s Police Academy there are many things to consider.
There was no question that the people that came to speak to each of us who attended the nightly classes were nothing but passionate about their job.
From the range of guests, whether they may work with children or domestic abuse victims or are officers on the Westfield police force, it was clear that many issues pointed out faults with the system.
The biggest issue seemed to be communication. Each department seemed to have difficulty with either communicating how each part of the system worked to civilians or being able to work with the limited resources the state has to fund them.
Breaking down the law was difficult and from the first night of class it was clear that the law was not always clear, which is of course the role and responsibility of the judicial system. However, this is not something that many people in communities see as effective.
We see this all the time in the news with plea bargains, settlements, indictments (or lack thereof) and many people who are guilty of crimes who walk free and sometimes the not guilty become imprisoned. These are only some of the flaws.
When police officers patrol areas they are deployed across the city where crime is shown to be a reoccurrence, and where differentiating people who are potential suspects comes close to profiling.
“It’s difficult to separate” said Sergeant Erik Hall of the Westfield Police Department.
This can be difficult for people who are living in poorer sections of town, college districts, or whose first language is not English. These people are often seen as “the others” in the community and live in areas where some may seek alternative and informal ways of getting by that may lead them to trouble with the law.
“Ninety percent of the time we are working with 10 percent of the community,” Hall said. “Community policing allows us to work with that other 90 percent.”
Hall said that instead of surveillancing the community, community policing allows him to eat lunch with students and familiarize them with police officers as acting as a safety net and not somebody to fear. It allows him to host the Citizen Police Academy, and to patrol sections of the city by bike, which many would agree is less intimidating then a cruiser, and build a bond with the community.
Officers are placed into the schools to prevent issues with the law and preventing students from entering “the system” at a young age. Sometimes this is met with resistance because for many schools are synonymous with jail, and when officers are placed into the schools, it can enhance that feeling of the prison-industrial complex.
These ideas of community policing are great initiatives to end the gap of miscommunication throughout the city. However, I look around the classroom and I wonder if many of these people are the ones that the message needs to be relayed to, white middle-class folk who have never encountered issues with the law.
I think the class had great benefits but I wish the word could be spread to more people. I believe that touching base on the law, schools, domestic abuse, and community policing are the beginning of the conversation with city residents.
I believe that the greater the communication the less crime there will be because there will be a greater trust and respect for your neighbor.
Erika Hayden is a WSU student, citizen journalist and grassroots writer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
