On September 5, 2018, the Dallas Police Department hosted the very first North Texas Law Enforcement Community Engagement Summit at the Briscoe Carpenter Center at Dallas Fair Park. This event featured community members, vendors, law enforcement, and criminal justice specialists all coming together to discuss and strategize best practices in community engagement.
The Summit kicked off with Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson. During her opening remarks, she said, “I’m so excited, and happy about what will come out of this summit for us.”
The crowd also heard from Houston Police Chief Art Acevado. He said, “Our job is to build trust, life is about relationships and the way we connect with people.” After the featured speakers, breakout sessions were held in different rooms at the Briscoe Center covering various engagement strategies from messaging and communication to UNIDOS, a Latino Community Outreach Program designed to provide assistance to the Spanish-speaking residents. Also, a panel discussion took place including a question and answer period.
“If we don’t get to the root of the problem, all we do is treat the symptoms and for many years we’ve treated the symptoms of crime and failed to engage our community to the level they needed,” said Chief U. RENEÉ HALL as she gave the closing remarks.
The North Texas Law Enforcement Community Engagement Summit featured presenters and attendees from Dallas, Plano, Grand Prairie, Bedford and other cities in the North Texas community. Throughout the event, there were faces of intrigue and enlightenment. Hopefully with law enforcement and community coming together to discuss strategies, community engagement will thrive throughout north Texas.
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