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Held in conjunction with the Office of Justice Programs and Office of Community Relations Service, the training focus on strengthing the bond between the community and the police.
Titled “Strengthening Police & Community Partnerships: Making Communities Safer,” is designed to bring together local law enforcement officers and community members to open (or continue) a dialogue about community engagement, said New Windsor Police Lt. Robert L. Doss.
Many members of the New Windsor community volunteered on their own time to attend the training. The community was represented by local residents who are local clergy and religious leaders, large-scale business managers, local government officials, mental health professionals, public and private school principals, probation officials, youth advocates and local small business employees.
During the training, the community members were brought together and comingled with several members of the New Windsor Police Department to work through scenario-based exercises, Doss said.
Some of the key themes of the exercises were: the importance and role of community engagement in public safety, the core principles for successful engagement, the importance of process and how we experience process in the real world, how mistrust works and its impact, how experiences shape expectations and the community bank account and its value to increasing community safety.
“The New Windsor Police Department would like to thank our Law Enforcement partners at the U.S. Department of Justice for bringing this first of its kind training to the Town of New Windsor," Doss said. "Here in New Windsor, we have enjoyed a long-standing history of positive community support for the Police Department. We have always valued our partnership with the community and we have worked very hard to keep the public trust that we have been given."
He added the training initiative will allow them to strengthen this partnership even further by providing a format for open and honest in-person discussions between the community and the Police Department.
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