At the White House this week, Vice President Joe Biden met with law enforcement leaders from across the United States. They discussed how to build trust between local citizens and law enforcement. Meanwhile, some interesting trust-building has been going on in a handful of Vermont communities.
Audio for this piece will be posted.
In this week, police officers were grilling up and giving away hundreds of hot dogs. Kids in were taking selfies with local patrol officers. In , Police Chief William Humphries was perched on the break-away seat of a dunk tank, daring residents to make him take the plunge.
It was all part of on Tuesday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just an opportunity for the public to interact with us," explains Fair Haven Police Chief William Humphries. "I mean, they don鈥檛 every day get to dunk me in a dunking booth. Some days they deal with me it鈥檚 not good. It just brings the community together.鈥�
Humphries says his department doesn鈥檛 have a community relations problem, and he plans to keep it that way.
鈥淲ith everything going on in the world right now and the anti-police sentiment, I think that it does help us in our community," he says of the annual Night Out. "Our community supports us very well anyway. We don鈥檛 really have those issues. But I want to keep that reinforced.鈥�
National Night Out intends to promote safety in communities across the country. But in St. Albans, Police Lt. Ron Hoague says it鈥檚 more about strengthening community bonds.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about making contact and making community partnerships," says Lt. Hoague. "You know, we can鈥檛 do this alone as law enforcement. We can鈥檛 solve everything. We don鈥檛 try to. So if we can partner with the community and get people to help us and we become partners in solving these issues, we鈥檒l get farther.鈥�
Hoague says this type of community-oriented policing is happening in St. Albans despite the animosity involving law enforcement throughout the country, not because of it.
鈥淲ith all of the different events that have taken place around the country, yes our police officers are absolutely more cautious than they have been in the near past," he says. "But we鈥檙e not going to let that affect our relationship with the community. We鈥檝e got a good relationship, we鈥檙e transparent with them. And we鈥檝e been doing this 鈥� this is our ninth year and we鈥檙e not going to stop doing it because of what鈥檚 been going on around the country.鈥�
Over the years, National Night Out has grown in St. Albans from a get-to-know-your-police event to a full-scale community celebration. All sorts of organizations took part this year, handing out balloons, popsicles, T-shirts and goodie bags.
A cue of young children and parents stood under a tent marked Rise VT. It鈥檚 a community collaborative based out of the Northwestern Medical Center. The kids were waiting to mix up smoothies on a bicycle-powered blender.
A man who goes by the name Moretti was helping serve up the fruits of their labor.
鈥淲e want to celebrate our community and how safe it is and wonderful it is," he says. "We want to celebrate everybody here, so we were just here to spin up some fun, as it were.鈥�
"We're experiencing big city problems here that we've never experienced before." - Fair Haven Police Chief William Humphries
But policing isn鈥檛 all fun and games, even in Vermont. Fair Haven鈥檚 Chief Humphries says his department is busier than ever. Some of that is because community relations efforts are working, and residents are calling the police more. But he also says there鈥檚 more drug-related crime in the area.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely changed from when I started here," he says. "I wish we could go back to 鈥�98 when I started. We didn鈥檛 have the problems that we have. Our call volume has gone from 800 cases to 2,000 a year ... We鈥檙e experiencing big city problems here that we鈥檝e never experienced before. There is a heroin problem in the area, opiates throughout the county.鈥�
And addiction, officers across Vermont will tell you, is a problem best addressed by united communities working together.
