State police hope meetings will help community relations
State police in Uniontown are looking to build and improve community relations with children and young adults and are hoping public meetings will help achieve their goal. Lt. Charles Depp, commanding officer at the Uniontown station, said it is important for police to try to build relations with younger people.
“A lot of times, younger people only see police when something bad happens. And though we’re not bad, the kids associate us with those incidents,” he said. “Kids need to see us and be around us when there is nothing bad happening…when they’re having fun, and we’re having fun, so that they can see police are human beings, too.”
The relationship between the police and some community members has been strained since the Christmas Eve death of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe, whom a state police officer fatally shot during a foot pursuit in Uniontown.
Depp said it will take time for police to be accepted as part of the community, and a meeting Thursday at the Hopwood Fire Hall was held in an attempt to bring citizens together, so that the police could hear concerns and answer questions.
Despite a low turnout, Depp said he was not discouraged, and he said the police plan to hold another meeting in late spring, “when the weather is better.”
However, trooper Brian Burden said he expected a larger turnout and was surprised more people did not come to the meeting.
“I was hoping for more people. Hopefully, there will be more people present the next time we have a meeting,” he said.
Burden said the police are concerned, and have always been concerned, about their relationship with the public.
In order to continuously improve that relationship, Burden said, the police are involved in many public programs.
“We go to elementary schools and have troopers present programs about stranger danger and bus safety to the kids,” he said. Burden said the police also are willing to hold presentations dealing with personal safety and community crime watch programs for adults.
Because of new requirements, station commanders from each barracks are required to hold community meetings.
Depp said he looks forward to taking part in community picnics this summer so that he can meet both the young and old alike.
“I’d be more than willing to volunteer my time, even if it’s spent cooking hamburgers and hanging out with kids,” he said.