Police Department to hold community engagement seminars 

By CHRISTIAN MAITRE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer

The Police Department will hold eight community engagement workshops as part of a partnership with Dedication to Community (D2C).

Waltham will have both morning and evening time slots starting at 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, Jan. 30, Feb. 5 and Feb. 6.

The discussions will take place at the Clark Government Center, Brandeis University, McDevitt Middle School and the Waltham Boys & Girls Club.

Each four-hour workshop is free for the public to attend and will include stories from members of D2C, who have law enforcement backgrounds. 

After the speaking portion, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss issues affecting the Waltham community in smaller groups that include members of the Waltham Police Department. D2C will provide discussion prompts for these conversations.

Connecting community and police

According to Police Chief Kevin O’Connell, these workshops are an opportunity for the public to voice their concerns about public safety in the city and get to know members of local law enforcement.

Captain of Community Services Division Jeffrey Rodley said the public is often only able to interact with the police during moments of crisis and enforcement of the law.

“This is an opportunity outside of those moments of enforcement or crisis for us to humanize ourselves, build trust and listen to the community in a noncrisis setting,” he said.

Rodley became interested in bringing a D2C workshop to Waltham after attending an event organized by the Newton Police Department last spring.

D2C is a nonprofit that provides community relations workshops between the public and the local police departments.

The program is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services.

Rodley said the Waltham Police Department was awarded roughly $167,000 from the grant last October.

O’Connell said discussions relating to public safety have often become heated in the past due to feelings of anxiety and frustration from residents.

“This is more of a seminal conversation to get to know us as human beings,” he said.
For more information and to sign up for these seminars click here.

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