I attended the recent presentation by Chattanooga Police Academy cadets and found it so inspiring and in such contrast to what we are experiencing in the media from Ferguson, Mo., and New York that I wanted to share my impressions about the experience.
The cadets presented findings from their participation in the police department’s new “Community Immersion Project,” which involved them talking with people from the African-American, Hispanic and gay community.
New Police Chief Fred Fletcher asked the cadets to go into these communities with several questions, to receive information without filters, and then to process it into a presentation and a written paper. This was a way of learning through direct contact and through building relationships with people who make up each of these communities.
“People are going to love you. They just don’t know you yet,” Chief Fletcher said to the cadets.
That was the chief’s message to the cadets — the community will love you when they know you.