Panelists at Wednesday’s “Know Your Rights” panel sponsored by Harrisburg Hope. From left to right: Brandon Flood, Harrisburg Hope organizer; Chris Siennick, Andy Hoover, Cornelius Johnson, Robert Martin, Anthony Minium, and Steve Zawisky.
How does Harrisburg stack up to its neighbors on community policing initiatives?
Law enforcement officials, legal experts and activists discussed this question and others at Wednesday night’s “Know Your Rights” forum hosted by Harrisburg Hope. The event drew about 60 community members to the Highmark meeting room at Hamilton Health Center.
Councilman Cornelius Johnson, the only city government representative on the panel, thinks Harrisburg has some work to do.
“The honest truth is that we’re behind,” said Johnson, chairman of City Council’s public safety committee, while responding to a resident who asked him about the city’s community policing initiatives.
Johnson identified a few limitations for Harrisburg’s police bureau. He said the city’s financial distress reduced the manpower of the police force, and a nationwide police shortage makes it hard to improve its high vacancy rate.
Harrisburg police also process a higher volume of calls than smaller, neighboring townships, he said.
But according to Johnson, the city needs to ask what else it can do to improve police and community relations. For example, police should be visible in communities when they aren’t responding to calls, he said.
“Within the urban community, there’s a lack of kids who want to be police officers based on lack of interaction with police in Harrisburg,” Johnson said. “When we are only seeing police officers come to the scene of robberies, we are not seeing them in a positive light.”
Johnson also spoke about solutions that the city is considering to bolster community relations. For example, council hopes to use federal Community Development Block Grant money to start an internship program for young adults interested in criminal justice. Eligible youth would have roles in the police department and get scholarships to attend HACC.
Council is also considering legislation that would create a citizen task force to discuss policing initiatives.
Multiple audience members expressed disappointment that Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse and Police Chief Tom Carter did not appear on the panel.
Carter and Papenfuse could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Susquehanna Township Police Chief Robert Martin and Steelton Police Chief Anthony Minium both appeared to speak about community policing initiatives they implemented in their forces. They said that the goal of community policing is to increase positive contact between police officers and community members.
Martin described programs that have been ongoing in his force since he took over as chief. For example, the “Honorable Endeavor” program requires officers to interact with children when they see them on their patrol. Another program, called “Stand in the Gap,” requires officers to enter schools on their foot patrols and talk to students about a “Word of The Month,” such as “respect” or “devotion.”
Martin said that officers must write a report when they perform a community policing task and undergo quarterly evaluations based on those reports.
In Steelton, police officers interact with local youth through athletic programs and a junior police academy, according to Minium.
“We wanted to make officers more of a social worker on the street,” Minium said.
Johnson, Minium and Martin were joined on the panel by Andy Hoover, communications director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania; Stephen Zawisky, senior deputy district attorney for Dauphin County; and Chris Siennick, a local activist and victim of a 2015 police brutality incident.
City Council President Wanda Williams was scheduled to appear but had to leave town for a family emergency, said Brandon Flood, president of Harrisburg Hope.
Wednesday’s panel was the first event organized by Harrisburg Hope since its dissolution several years ago. The grassroots organization was founded by former Harrisburg resident Alan Kennedy Shaffer and reincarnated by Flood and Harrisburg Councilwoman Destini Hodges.
Flood said that the group will continue to organize forums on a regular basis and will choose future topics based on public input.
