Town hall discusses policing

New information -- huntsville police are working to foster a closer relationship with the public.

Community leaders and local police met for a virtual town hall tonight.

They talked about community resource and crisis intervention officers.

Waay 31's will robinson-smith joins us live at huntsville city hall... that's where department leaders held a conversation to help inform the public.

Those here tonight say they hope the hour-and-a-half-long dialogue answered some questions and gave people a better idea of how the department works with the community.

With coronavirus preventing traditional town halls -- members of huntsville police leadership joined council member francis akridge for a live-streamed discussion on certain types of policing.

This night exceeded my expectations.

For about 90 minutes -- they walked through some of their data-driven initiatives -- like crash reduction and crime suppression - in the north and south precincts.

Lt.

Jonathan ware also put a spotlight on the crisis intervention team or c-i-t program that helps those dealing with a mental illness.

The department was one of four chosen to receive a federal grant to build the program.

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Jonathan ware, director, cit program it was designed by the department of justice to be a national standard and through the city of huntsville's implementation that we have been able to steer how cit programs across the country now look.

Two of the main components -- de-escalation and active listening training -- are in the process of being taught to all officers in a two-day training session.

That process should be completed by the end of 2021.

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Jonathan ware, director, cit program in addition to the classes that we're giving the officers that we already have on the street, we're now giving that 16 hours in the police academy.

So, we're trying to catch it on both ends: officers who have been here for 20, 25 years like me, and the officers who are just starting their career.

Officer whitney summerville is the community resource officer for the west precinct and also received the c-i-t training.

She says those core components help with policing in general -- but especially when someone is going through a mental health crisis.

Officer whitney summerville, west precinct cro so when we respond to these calls and when we make a traffic stop and they're instantly having the worst day of their life, we have to be able to understand a little bit of what they're going through, express a little bit of compassion, and again that leads to trust.

Council member akridge says she appreciated the questions asked during the q&a portion because it allowed the officers to address things like auditing and monitoring social media for officers.

Francis akridge, huntsville city council member, district 2 screening people for if they've been involved with a, let's say it, a white supremacist group, that they're not going to get hired in huntsville, that they're own social media posts are known to the police department, that they investigate posts if they are brought to the attention.

And those who spoke tonight also emphasized that building community trust requires everyone.

They suggest when there are opportunities to meet officers that residents take those chances.

As captain rice said in his closing remarks, "it is not an 'us against them' mentatlity, it is a 'we' mentality which makes us a great community."

Reporting live in huntsville, will robinson-smith, waay 31 news.

Thanks, will.

You'll have a chance to meet some officers with huntsville police during their national night out event.

That's happening