Whether you’ve intentionally, or unintentionally, come across them, you’ve seen the men and women of the Mantua Township Police Department interacting with the community in a positive and uplifting way, and it’s leaving a good mark on the department and the township.
“If you don’t have a community policing initiative these days, you’re probably going to be in a lot of trouble,” said Chief Darren White.
Throughout the year, he said officers or the department as a whole will be out at numerous community events, or will host some of their own for the public to approach them and have a conversation with them in a casual manner.
“We’re here to answer questions you always wanted to ask, but didn’t want to call to ask,” White said in regard to the Coffee with a Cop events. “People have kids and we try to have goodies there for them. People might seem hesitant at first, but will come up and talk to us and that’s the goal: to have a conversation in a non-structured environment.”
He added that he tries to have the coffee events occur in both the Mantua and Sewell parts of the township to give residents, and the businesses, a chance to interact with them.
He also added the car seat checkups allows for the officers to show and train attendees on how to properly install the seats in cars for each child, and car, they have.
White said the department has been able to assist the community with the additions of a Safe Deal Zone (where people can do Craigslist or e-commerce transactions under a surveillance camera), Project Medicine Drop (for old or unused medications to be turned in, no questions asked) and, White’s newest initiative, a police chaplain program.
“We go out for a death notification and it’s not easy for us or the people we’re notifying, but it’s a job we have to do,” he said of the program. “To have somebody to come out and act as the counselor and take that stress off of us and allow us to do our job makes things easier for everyone.”
The chaplains won’t be there to push a religion, but to give counseling for the people the officers interact with on calls.
Other initiatives have been done to either be more transparent to the public, without revealing specifics, to let them know what the department does, or to show teachers in the schools how to handle stressful situations in a calm manner.
“People should be more aware of what’s going on in their town, and they’re interested in it,” White said regarding the department’s public patrol summaries. “If it’s not going to hurt the department or put any of our tactics in jeopardy, then why wouldn’t we release it?”
Sgt. Drew Hayes teaches martial arts to teachers during in-service days and to departments in other towns.
In neighboring Wenonah, White said the community has been receptive of the officers’ presence in the town and how they’ve been including the borough in numerous activities.
“It’s a good idea to get out there and develop relationships ahead of time, so that if and when something happens, people don’t feel as though you’re coming out at them as a stranger, but they understand better who you are and what you’re about,” White said.
White pointed attention more toward the department’s K-9 unit that’s almost entirely self-funded, and they rely heavily on donations from the public to keep them going. Last year, the unit was able to get K-9 Boomer, a yellow labrador retriever, who’s been used in searches for people and explosives.
“With the other dogs, they’re still friendly when their handlers want them to be friendly, but they’re a bit more conscious of having a lot of kids around them, so the handlers have to be more protective,” he said. “Boomer’s trained in sniffing out bombs and explosives. Other than that, he’s a regular dog.”
While he couldn’t point out his favorite initiative, White said he loves seeing how much fun kids have when they can sit in cars or pet the K-9s, being able to talk to seniors at the monthly senior dinners and interacting with the general public and learn about who their residents are.
“I don’t know how other departments are or their officers, but it seems like all of our officers enjoy interacting with people, especially when they’re not out on calls.”
To learn more about upcoming community events by the police department, visit www.Facebook.com/ManutaPD.
