WM Police continue to ramp up efforts to engage with the community

WM Police continue to ramp up efforts to engage with the community

Department working for and with residents to confront crime across the city

ralphhardin@gmail.com Crime is something that every community has to deal with on some level.

For years, West Memphis residents have seen that firsthand and West Memphis police have worked tirelessly to address the issue.

In recent months, that effort has intensified.

Through federal programs such as DIVRT (Digital Imaging and Video Recovery Team) or the DETER (Data Enhanced Targeted Enforcement and Restoration) initiative to combat violent crime, the West Memphis Police Department has made strides to keep the community safe.

The Police Department also relaunched its own Police Training Academy in order to get residents with an interest in law enforcement to make a personal investment in helping fight crime in West Memphis by joining the police force. Three classes have already completed their training.

More recently, though, the department has made it even more personal, with police officials taking a more direct approach to reaching out to the community both to assure residents that the police department is actively working to make the city safer and to solicit information from concerned residents and offer help in preventing crimes such as burglaries and gang-related violence.

To that end, a number of community forums have been held, with more scheduled

for the near

future. Police Chief Donald Oakes addressed a crowd of more than 100 residents at Richland Elementary to take questions and offer home safety tips. Captain Joe Baker conducted a similar Q& A session at St.

Michael’s Catholic Church.

Ideas including a neighborhood watch-type program, increased funding to Crittenden County Crime Stoppers, and better utilization of social media as a line of communication between police and the public are just a few of the steps being taken to increase awareness of criminal activities and bring perpetrators to justice.

The WMPD is even taking its get tough on crime message to the schools. Last Tuesday, Captain Robert Langston visited the Academies

of West Memphis and

spoke with the school’s newly-implemented Intro to Criminal Justice classes as part of the police outreach program P.A.C.T.

Captain Langston spent time with several classes at AWM and discussed many aspects of police work.

The department has also installed three new “eye in the sky” to monitor crime in the city. The Sky Cop cameras can record vehicle and pedestrian traffic on key corners crime “hot spots” around the city.

By Ralph Hardin