As Evesham Chief of Police Christopher Chew likes to put it, the department recently gained some “family members” with the creation and implementation of its new police chaplain program.
According to Chew, the program first materialized as the department was thinking about ways to further bring in the community as part of the police department.
“The overriding idea behind this was if there was a tragic (event) that happened in our community, we needed stakeholders in our community for assistance, whether it be delivering tragic news to a family, a critical incident involving a community member or an incident involving the police with the community,” Chew said.
Once the department started doing its research, Chew said it immediately recognized a police chaplain program was one of the best ways to achieve that goal.
“We wanted to partner up with who else but the best of the best, and that’s who we were looking for in our community to partner up with to help solve issues,” Chew said.
Chew said many times when members of the public see a police officer, they might think negative things are going to happen, as officers usually arrive to handle potentially dangerous or illegal situations or deliver tragic news.
“It’s usually we’re not getting invited to birthday parties or Christmas parties or anything along those lines,” Chew said.
Yet with the police chaplain program, Chew said those involved can act as a mouthpiece of sorts for the department when interacting and speaking to their specific congregations.
“Some people might come up and ask them questions — ‘why do the police do this,’ ‘why do the police do that’ — hopefully, if they don’t have the answer, they’ll be able to come back to us and we’ll communicate to that specific group,” Chew said.
Evesham Police Capt. Thomas Reinholt said the department reached out to every congregation that had a house of worship or facility in Evesham and was able to identify 11 religious members from the community to volunteer for the program.
Reinholt said the department then sent those 11 individuals to an intensive two-day training run by a national organization for police chaplains.
“We got a great response,” Reinholt said. “Every religious faith responded back to us with interest.”
Mayor Randy Brown also had high praise for the program’s creation, and said it was something he had discussed with Chew and his predecessors and was something in his opinion that has long been needed in the department.
Brown said the program would be good for the well being of the members of the department as well as the community as a whole.
“The scenes that these men and women are on … are at times catastrophic, and too often we have said ‘they’re too tough, they don’t need people to talk to.’ Well they’re human as we are,” Brown said.
Brown also said he appreciated the chaplains for standing up and volunteering to help the community and become an even bigger part of it.
“We’ve got a top-ranked police force, by what the numbers say, but what I want is a top-ranked mental police force that has the ability to communicate when there’s issues, and all of us have them at one point or another,” Brown said.
The religious organizations involved with the chaplain program include Fellowship Alliance Chapel, Wiley Church, Marlton Assembly of God, Sovereign Grace Church, Calvary Chapel of Marlton, Marlton United Methodist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, St. Isaac Jogues, St. Joan of Arc, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Congregation Beth Tikvah.
“We’re just multiplying by numbers at this point in our organization, and they are officially our family members,” Chew said.
