No matter how much trust a local police force has earned over decades of outreach and training, an incident like the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month can only be seen as a major setback. Communities, particularly those of color, respond to this kind of national tragedy questioning all forms of law enforcement, even those that have been doing the right thing continuously in serving and protecting their towns and counties.
With that in mind, the Spy thought it would be a good time to check in with the region’s top public safety leaders to hear first hand their impressions on the police role in the death of Mr. Floyd, and how they are processing the event and its consequences.
We continue with Town of Chestertown Acting Police Chief John Dolgos.
This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about the Town of Chestertown Police Department please go here
Cheryl Hoopes says
I believe we need more conversations with police officers.
My recent experience, (within the past week), in talking informally with members of the local African American community, has been that they do not echo the same positive view of police involvement and interactions that Chief Dolgos indicates. A concrete example of this discrepancy is illustrated in the following approach to our local police force’s method of “community engagement”: on one particular day, one officer, in “just talking” to a small group of African American men in their neighborhood, had his hand on his gun throughout the entire “chat.” Not exactly the creation of a context for nurturing trust.
More training seems imperative, at the very least.