As you know, we’ve been working since April to reinstate the
No Place for Hate program here in
Committee members in attendance were: Chief Warren Tobias,
Sgt. Carrie Lopes (NPFH Chair, Civil Rights Officer), Cathy
Ms. Zuber gave us a No Place for Hate program overview and handed out information packets to the group. We also discussed the community needs survey that the committee will be completing at its next meeting. We had a long discussion about the reality versus perception of the hate crime issue and public awareness via negative media attention. The group discussed getting the local media involved in our meetings and projects in a more proactive and positive way.
This discussion got the group to identify a goal for future initiatives: to improve communication between the police department and the community to re-establish a partnership to prevent hate motivated violence in the community. The first Hate Plan Working Group was formed in the 1990s and the police department and community partnered to overcome hate crimes. We trained together and established a policy and protocol that successfully reduced bias crime and we established a trust and positive relationship during that time. Over the past 10 years that partnership has eroded as the populations (and priorities) in the community and the police department have changed. Unfortunately, recent negative media coverage has highlighted a perceived distrust of the police in the community.
Some possible initiatives to improve communications: an open house at the police station, a citizens academy, the Banner running a “Meet your Officer” article each week, a hate crimes forum with the DA and AG presenting information on the law and our protocol.
We discussed recruiting a few more members to represent other segments of the community so that we would have a seven-member committee. The group identified the schools and the native male heterosexual as under-represented community populations. Several members of the team identified potential recruits for me to contact. We also discussed the need for volunteers, who would not be voting committee members, who should be invited to participate in the program and our initiatives. The team also noted that an interested member of the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager should be invited to attend our meetings so they are kept current on the status of the NPFH program before and after they sign the proclamation.
I received a phone call yesterday from Zoe Stark of the Civil Rights Division at the AG’s office. She will be our contact person for review and any other assistance we might need for the NPFH program.
We will be meeting on Nov. 28, 2007 with members of the ADL to develop NPFH law enforcement training for the department. This is essential but separate training from the community component.
Our next meeting will be December 5, 2007 at 10:30 am in the Judge Welsh Hearing Room at Town Hall. The committee will hopefully be welcoming George Felton and Luke Hadley (student) as the newest members of the committee. We will officially launch the NPFH initiative, set our goals and decide on our first of three activities. I have notified Steve Desroches at the Cape Codder, Pru Sowers at the Banner and Maryann Bragg at the Cape Cod Times about the meeting. I also request you invite a Selectman and the Town Manager to our next meeting and follow up on Luke Hadley’s status while I’m away on vacation.
Nov. 16, 2007 by Carrie Lopes, Chair
Accepted: