GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The first listening session to get the community’s input on Green Bay’s next police chief saw a few attendees at Divine Temple Church – and heard a lot of different ideas.
While talk about diversity and ways policing should be handled was present, one theme stood out among the rest. The next chief has to have his finger on the pulse of the Green Bay community.
“I would just like to see the new chief continue what Chief Smith has already started,” said Sharon Harper, the director of resources at Divine Temple Church. “My main thing is, just stay in the community. Let people get to know you, get to know all the people in the community…If you work with the community then people will get to know you and they won’t it won’t be so intimidated they have to come and tell you things going on in the community…The police can’t do it by themselves. It takes a village, it’s the community that helps to keep everybody safe.”
“What we’re basically looking for in a chief is one that’s fair to all people, regardless of race, religion, whatever,” said Minister Cross. “The police have to look at the people objectively, and the people have to be able to trust the police. That’s one of the biggest issues in the African-American community, right now anyway.”
“What I’m really looking for is somebody that is very community minded, believes in community policing, and establishing relationships with the community…I believe that we should utilize the officers we have, that have worked under the last chief. They know our community better than anybody,” said Christopher Zahn, who showed up to voice his thoughts. “It’s very important that people start to see that there’s two parts to the police – there’s to protect and serve. I certainly would say that Chief Smith understood the part ‘to serve,’ and we really need to see that in our next chief.”
“To know this community, and to have roots, to have involvement with different community organizations, that’s important,” another man said.
“Especially after everything that last year exposed, we need the community and police relationship to be stronger now than ever,” said Hannah Beauchamp-Pope. “Someone who is not only a police officer, but also a member of the community and builds those relationships.”
While the session was more focused on gauging the public’s thoughts on what they’d like to see in the chief, some people already had particular candidates in mind. While some didn’t share their favorites on-record with WTAQ, Beauchamp-Pope wasn’t shy in her support of a local candidate.
“I think Kevin [Warych] has what our community needs for progress forward in the new definition of policing,” she told WTAQ News. “Kevin has been participating in this in many different ways. He came out to our Juneteenth celebration, he also participated in a fundraiser where the police officers wore pride pins this last month and the money went to the UW Green Bay pride center.”
A list of qualities and suggestions from residents about what they would like to see from Green Bay’s next police chief. (PHOTO: WTAQ News)
As for the session itself, the commission was feeling good about the feedback. Green Bay Police and Fire Commission President Rod Goldhahn says previous searches were mostly one-sided through surveys, and they didn’t get to see much explanation or reasoning behind the responses.
“This gives us a chance to have some two way communication with the people and provide some better context. So we’re looking forward to seeing how they go, and seeing what kind of information comes in,” Goldhahn said.
When asked about the strong thread of community-oriented chatter among candidates and those in attendance, Goldhahn wasn’t surprised.
“Police departments have found that having community involvement, being recognized in the community, being part of the community helps them prevent crime and helps them solve crimes. It helps them deal with solving problems that the old way of doing things may not have,” Goldhahn told WTAQ News.
For those taking part, having that input is important too.
“That way you give the community a chance to pick to make a decision to because otherwise if you don’t feel like well we not even engaged in the actual process,” Harper added.
If you want to have your voice and opinion heard – a list of upcoming listening sessions can be found here.
