During a new 10-week course the University of Rhode Island Police Department will educate the public on topics such as an active shooter incident, ethical standards, drunk driving and shooting simulations.
The campus police held their first citizens police academy session last Thursday night. This first meeting was a general overview of the police department and Police Major Michael Jagoda’s emphasis on community policing. URI Police will continue to take students behind the scenes of the police force for the class. Jagoda hopes to use this first-ever academy to provide transparency and show the community that the police department is living up to the community’s highest expectations.
“During these challenging times that we are seeing, why at this time when officers are so well trained, very well educated, technology is unbelievable and crime is at an all time low, why is it the community has the lowest trust in police?” Jagoda questioned. “We have to ask ourselves why that is.”
Jagoda’s main attempt at fixing this problem consists of implementing community policing. The two main points that he sees as important for this type of policing are increasing transparency and strong leadership.
Part of the community policing initiative is based on having police officers out of patrol cars and onto bikes. The idea behind this is to make the police officers integral parts of the community, not just people who you only see when you’re in trouble. The police department will also hold regular training programs, even going as far as weekly training programs. The other element of community policing is accountability, according to Jagoda.
“If we don’t treat each other respectfully, how are we going to go out into the public and do that?” Jagoda asked. “I tell my officers everyday you need to go out and make a positive difference every day. If you are not going to do that, then I don’t want you here. As simple as that.”
The citizen’s academy also went over the new traffic grant that the university was given, which allows the state to run new traffic initiatives that include monitoring for seatbelt use and monitoring speed. These initiatives are new, along with the new traffic speed sign the university has adopted. The goal is to use the speed sign to provide a warning to students that they will begin monitoring the area, as well as provide traffic statistics.
Another big discussion during the meeting is the goal of the citizen’s academy. The university hopes to provide a service to students, specifically those interested in criminal justice, to see what goes on behind the scenes of the URI Police Department. The police also hope to be able to showcase to the community their efforts to make URI a comfortable and safe environment. With this, the URI Police hope to further build trust with the community and confidence in their abilities. Jagoda said that he hopes by the end of this all, the academy will provide a much-needed understanding of concerns on both ends of the community.