Cape Cod Community College Hosts Forum on Community-Police Relations

WEST BARNSTABLE – Members and officials from the region’s law enforcement agencies joined faith community members and human rights advocates at a gathering yesterday at Cape Cod Community College to address current issues related to community-police relations.

The workshop, “Cape Cod: Making it the Best Place for All of Us,” featured local police officers, representatives from the Martin Luther King Action Team, and members of the College’s Criminal Justice Department for a day-long event inside Tilden Center for the Arts.

“Police are the public, and the public are the police,” said Rev. Wesley Williams of the MLK Action Team.

“No one of us can do this business of maintaining peace and serving by ourselves I mean the police can’t do it without the public and the public can’t do it without the police.”

The forum included a panel that was moderated by Brewster Selectman John Dickson, as well as various small group discussions, and a keynote address by noted criminologist Dr. George Kelling.

Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson was one of many law enforcement officials at the event, “I just hope to learn a little bit more from my community and be able to explain and send a message out and interact with the community,” he said, “Just make it a little more welcoming and a learning process for everybody.”

Additional topics addressed at the workshop included Mental Health, Homelessness, Opioids, Youth Matters, and strengthening strategies.

Rev Williams said that the Cape is ahead of the curve when it comes to racial concerns, but that more still needs to be done locally and nationally.

“What we really want to do is establish relationships with the police so that the police see the community or the public as the police, the police and the public are one and we see each other as human beings,” said Williams.

By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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