Harrisburg City Hall
The creation of a community policing task force took center stage during last night’s City Council work session, as council members weighed several matters facing the city’s Police Bureau.
The task force resolution was submitted as a condition of the $65,000 allocation that council made to the bureau last month, which the department will use to update its stock of protective, or riot, gear. The proposal calls for the creation of an eight-member task force to address community policing initiatives, police training and the creation of a civilian review board.
Council members on Tuesday discussed the specific charges of the task force and a timeline for its work. They also agreed to add another civilian member, bringing the total number of task force members to nine.
Council and Mayor Eric Papenfuse also debated the process for nominating civilian members to serve on the task force, but that process remained unclear by the end of the meeting.
Councilman Cornelius Johnson, chair of the public safety committee, will revise the resolution and submit it to council for a vote on Oct. 24, he said.
Members of the bureau appeared at the meeting to talk about community policing initiatives and challenges currently facing the force. According to Chief Thomas Carter, the department is operating with a high vacancy rate, the result of officers being recruited by other forces.
“A lot of agencies come to Harrisburg and snatch up our guys,” Carter said. “As quickly as we hire officers, other agencies take them from us, and these guys leave for other places.”
Compounding the staffing shortage, crime witnesses are often reluctant to come forward with information, Carter said. As an example, he pointed to the recent shooting on 2nd Street, where a man was shot in the middle of a large crowd.
“People saw the shooting, they witnessed it, but nobody will talk to us,” Carter said. “Even the victims say they didn’t see anything. They won’t say anything.”
Carter also said that the Harrisburg force responds to a high volume of 9-1-1 calls, especially proportionate to its manpower. Since officers are typically running from one call to the next with little time to spare, Carter said, opportunities to go on foot patrol or attend community events are sparse.
Carter and Capt. Deric Moody both said that the bureau needs to work on its relationship with the community. They hope to start that process with a Citizens Police Academy, which will welcome its inaugural class in January. The class of 15 to 20 citizens will meet once a week for 12 weeks to learn about different aspects of policing.
The bureau is also working to launch a Cadet Program to recruit young adults interested in criminal justice careers. Cadets who pass a police physical and medical exam will be given internship-level positions with the bureau and receive HACC tuition credits.
The program will start next summer when funds from the federal Community Development Block Grant become available, Carter said.
More than 15 members of the public turned out for the work session, but only a handful endured the three hours of discussion that preceded the public comment period.
One resident who remained identified himself as a member of the This Stops Today activist group and urged council to abandon the task force and host town hall meetings instead.
“The task force seems like bureaucracy,” he said. “I would skip this and just hear directly from the community.”
Council will reconvene on Tuesday, Oct. 10, for its next legislative session.
