In this interview, host Don Hutchison asks me about my work. And what I am most excited by the work I am doing as executive director of Police2Peace, a national nonpartisan charity I founded about 2 years ago, Police2Peace offers low-tech, high impact ways to help community engagement and lower barriers between police and the community. We first started doing this through the PEACE OFFICER identity program, where we visibly put decals with the words PEACE OFFICER on police vehicles. More recently, we have begun offering programs for police departments and communities to help change minds and open hearts to how we can all live in peace.
Continue readingPeace Officer
When Peace Officer is in the Name, the Dynamic Changes
In this podcast, I spoke with hosts Xander and Erik to try to unpack the tensions surrounding police and our communities. First, just because it’s a really big issue doesn’t mean that nothing can be done about it. But the complexities of the issue extend not just to what we see in the media, but to entire communities who feel underserved. They’re unhappy with the way they’re being policed. They feel that every time there’s an incident involving the police, the community, the city, or the police department only react afterward. They were hoping that body cams would work, but sometimes that equipment isn’t working. People are hoping to be believed that they are being heard in their expression of ill-ease with how they’re being policed.
continue readingPushing Boundaries: Portland, Oregon’s Red Door Project
In May of this year, an innovative experiment took place at Portland, Oregon’s August Wilson Red Door Theater. Producers Kevin Jones and Lesli Mones, set out to change the racial ecology of Portland through the arts by putting on two plays back to back, one from the perspective of people of color, and the other from the perspective of the police. The play due called “Cop Out” and “Hands Up” was a way for them to forge a path of accountability and healing for people of color and the police. Originally only planning to produce five or six shows, the performances were so popular that they had to extend that and even turn some people away.
Continue ReadingPEACE OFFICERS: Can they become the guardians of our society?
Beginning in 2016, a discussion among leaders in the field of policing began to how good officers had become at fighting crime; but still, the country seems at odds with so many incidents covered in the news media all the time. It seems that there is a need for increased trust, safety and cooperation between communities and law enforcement officers which has become critical in nature. Departments of all kinds throughout our country are finding themselves in a defensive position within communities they are sworn to protect and serve. But can instead become the “Guardians” of our society? We think the answer is yes. And the way to do this is for officers and departments to be able to communicate their values and to have that message translated properly so the listener understands what the intention is. So what are those “guardian” values? We think they consist of four things: 1) To prevent conflict; 2) If there is conflict, help resolve it; 3) Diffuse situations, and 4) Aid the defenseless.
Continue ReadingAshland Oregon Shows Us What It Really Means to be a Peace Officer
In May of this year, the Ashland Police Department set out on a historic initiative to become the first Oregon police department to add PEACE OFFICER emblems to its entire fleet of patrol vehicles. Working closely with the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, Chief Tighe O’Meara and the entire police department team see this as a way to develop stronger community partnerships and community outreach. Becoming part of the growing trend toward PEACE OFFICER identity in law enforcement is one more example of the fact that people really do want to live in a world of peace.
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