Aiken Times

City of Greenwood issued the following announcement on February 16.

Article and photo by: DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

A year of community policing has strengthened the bonds between the Greenwood Police Department and its community, and Chief T.J. Chaudoin said he’s eager to continue this work.

On Wednesday, the police community patrol team set up a table outside of Morris Chapel Baptist Church at the invitation of Bishop Oliver McCray and made a point of stopping to greet everyone who passed. Officers Courtney Clemmons and William Kay have been on the team for more than a year now, and Clemmons said she’s already seen the effect of their work.

Clemmons remembered her first time going to schools to interact with students during drop-off and pick-up. The children were initially standoffish, she said, but soon they warmed up to her and Kay, and were excited to see them when they visited.

“I think that’s one of the main things we’re trying to do — change people’s minds,” she said. “I think it’s been working. I don’t think it’s something you can fix in one year.”

The aim of the community patrol team was to have officers interact with the public in a positive light. These officers work to engage with people in meaningful ways, to show that police can be a resource and not just tied to crime investigations.

“By far, I’ve been impressed with the way the community has opened up their arms for us,” Chaudoin said. “The role of police is to protect and serve. You can’t have one without the other — the ‘serve’ part is an important tool.”

Kay said the police department was just involved with the city-county food drive and saw overwhelming support from donors. They’ve also hosted a community cookout, helped with litter cleanups and other community events. He’s joined community talks where neighbors come out to ask questions about the police department and hear updates on the overview of crime in Greenwood.

“I enjoy getting out and talking with people in a positive way,” Kay said. “Probably the most rewarding thing is just how much they seem to enjoy it, and I think the long-term effects, they’ll be felt communitywide.”

At Morris Chapel on Wednesday, the two officers handed out pamphlets about avoiding scams alongside applications for jobs at the police department. Chaudoin said two people asked about becoming police officers themselves.

Although the community team is only two officers right now, Chaudoin said he wants to see community policing expand further. He wants people to know officers’ names and is always looking at what other police departments are doing and seeing if those programs might fit in Greenwood.

Chaudoin is looking into the viability of a junior police officer program that teaches children about law enforcement, as well as a citizens’ police academy to teach adults. He doesn’t want to start programs without refining them, however, so he’s taking expansion slowly to hone what his officers are already doing.

“I don’t ever want to be satisfied,” he said. “The biggest thing for us is just expanding and getting better, and a lot of that is based on the community and their response.”

Building stronger community ties has made solving some crimes easier, with residents willing to step forward and trust law enforcement. GPD Public Information Officer Jonathan Link said he appreciated McCray giving police the chance to come out to Morris Chapel.

“I think people often see the police with a certain model, they just might see the uniform or the authority figure,” he said. “They want to help people, that’s the job.”

“People seeing a minority church like this in the community saying we want to shake hands with the police, we want them out here to talk to, it can show people we have a presence here,” he said. “It gives us the chance to shake hands with people who might not normally walk up to us.”

McCray said he invited the police department out as a way to kick off what he hopes will be more of a positive presence in the community surrounding Magnolia Park, an area he said he’s often thought is under-served by the city. He commended the police on their community efforts.

“I think the city manager and city council have done good expanding the size of the police department. I like the fact that they’re making the effort to connect with the community,” he said. “You have to start somewhere.”

Original source can be found here.