On July 24, 2013 we kicked off our first in a series of webinars as part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office. In this inaugural webinar, we brought together a representative from the COPS Office, 13 members of the Not In Our Town law enforcement cadre, and law enforcement professionals who have used Not In Our Town successfully in the field to share their stories.
If you weren’t able to join us, here’s a recap.
The Importance of Community Policing
After a brief introduction from our Director of Community Engagement Director,
Michelle Gahee Kloss, COPS Office Program Analyst Nazmia Alqadi talked about the collaborative work of NIOT and the COPS Office to provide community policing resources to participating departments.
“Community policing enhances traditional policing by increasing the stake the community has in public safety, and the way in which the community and police can work together to address the problems facing each individual community or neighborhood,” Alqadi said.
She outlined steps that law enforcement could take to address hate crimes in their areas and shared resources surrounding various issues in law enforcement.
See her slideshow presentation here.
Not In Marshalltown: Sheriff Ted Kamatchus and Chief Michael Tupper
Marshall County Sheriff Ted Kamatchus and Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper spoke about their efforts to address hate crimes in their community. In 2012, Marshalltown launched a citywide Not In Our Town campaign that brought together law enforcement, the community and schools.
“One of the things that was amazing to me is that we had about 2,000 people from Marshalltown at a high school football game. I remember walking in and seeing orange [Not In Our Town] shirts on the opposing team’s side. It was amazing because they knew about it.
“At half time, the group got together and everybody held up Not In Our Town signs and wore orange shirts just to show the rest of the community, and those bullies who were causing much of those problems, that we’re banding together to make sure Marshalltown stays a safe, unified community. I can tell you we’re very proud of the program. We’re very proud of the way the community came together,” said Sheriff Kamatchus
For Chief Michael Tupper, the opportunity to address broader community policing issues arose while at regular NIOT town meetings:
“Not In Our Town has opened up a lot of discussions about domestic violence, sexual assault, hate crimes and just crime in general. We are getting a great turnout when we get with together with our Not In Our Town groups and it has been a great tool for us to open up communication within our town,” said Chief Tupper
Tools You Can Use
One popular resource for law enforcement is screening our film, Light in the Darkness, which details the community response to a series of anti-immigrant hate attacks in Patchogue, NY.
Next Webinar: October
If you are interested in participating in the next webinar, please contact us at info@niot.org.
We wrapped up the webinar by introducing our participants to law enforcement tools and resources.
NIOT webinar_072413.ppt
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