Editorial: Percolating more trust of police

By SavannahNow
Original article HERE

Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin and his command staff should be saluted for organizing public events like the Coffee with a Cop program, which gets police officers out of their patrol cars and allows them to meet and interact with citizens on an informal face-to-face basis.

While such programs aren’t a panacea for the community’s crime problems, they can be part of a solution, as they build trust between citizens and the officers who are sworn to protect and serve them.

Such meet-and-greets should be held across the community and in a variety of forums so more people can attend. Instead of coffee houses, for example, why not the corner park or the neighborhood center or other favorite gathering spots? The venue matters less than getting people together.

On Monday morning, downtown residents got a chance to interact with officers in an informal setting at Savannah Coffee Roasters, hosted by the Downtown Neighborhood Association. Association President Melinda Allen said the event had been scheduled before last Friday’s City Council vote to de-merge the consolidated city-county Metro police department. She described it as a way for residents to meet the people behind the badge.

“I think it provides an environment that makes it easier to talk to each other and discuss ideas and issues and also just to get to know one another as people,” Ms. Allen said.

Among those officers in attendance was Capt. Joy Gellatly, commander of the downtown precinct. She said she enjoyed the opportunity to speak to residents in an environment that is more relaxed than typical police-resident encounters, correctly adding that it builds a better relationship with the public.

Improving this key relationship is a key component of community-based policing, which recognizes the fact that police officers can more effectively fight and prevent crime if they have the trust and support of citizens. That means creating situations that allow officers to get out of their patrol cars and walk the street, or perhaps go somewhere for coffee, so they can meet citizens. An ideal situation would be one in which more uniformed officers lived in the neighborhoods they patrolled.

But Coffee with a Cop is close to the next best thing – officers who know their beats, and the people who live and work in these areas. Unfortunately, too many citizens have the wrong opinions about police officers. There’s a lack of trust, and officers are incorrectly perceived as oppressors or a part of an occupying force. But trust is something that must be earned. And it’s difficult to build trusting relationships from the inside of a patrol car with all the windows rolled up. Or, if the only time you spend with an officer is on the receiving end of a traffic ticket or being handcuffed and placed into the back seat of a squad car.

That’s not an indictment of patrol officers, who must be mobile to quickly ride on all the calls they receive. Instead, it further supports the notion that the Chief Lumpkin needs more officers to do a better job of protecting the community. That would free up more officers to do community policing, while still having the number needed to respond to crimes or accidents.

But the critical element is building trust and improving communications with citizens, especially witnesses and others who may have critical information that authorities need to fight and solved crimes.

Unfortunately, that element has been missing in Savannah for too long. It’s encouraging to see police leaders addressing it. This isn’t touchy-feely stuff, it’s smart policing.

Better communications leads to more trust, which lead to better cooperation and more information for police, which in the end means safer streets. The public should raise a cup to Coffee with a Cop, which helps trust percolate. The chief should take this effort out of the downtown and on the road to all parts of the city.