The Athens-Clarke County Police Department is holding a study group and \cCommunity dialogue Saturday afternoon in hopes of finding out how Athens residents perceive the relationship between the community and local law enforcement. Chaplin Shane Sims says this is one way to find and target areas that need improvement.
"The study group is headed by three officers that are fairly new with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department,” according to Sims. “But they have pretty much given themselves to improving community-police relations. And they want to draw from diverse areas of the populace to test the pulse of the community and police relations.”
Sims wants all segments of the community to know their opinions matter and their voices will be heard.
“A lot of frustrations are alleviated just by giving someone the opportunity to express themselves in a clear, open and honest way We’re hoping this will facilitate that reconciliation between the community and police and they want to have raw dialogue with the we community to determine how does the community perceive its police department, good or bad. This is just an effort to remedy some of the things going on a national scale.”
The meeting is satudary, July 14, at the Triangle Plaza, or Feed my Sheep at 2:30. Organizers say everyone is welcome and refreshments will be served.