Made In Walker
The Made In Walker Podcast connects you to the people, stories, and ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we are diving deep into what makes Walker Michigan a great place to live, work, and grow.
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Made In Walker
Coffee, Cops, and Community: A Refreshing Conversation
In this engaging episode of "Made in Walker," we sit down with Tyler Glass and Mitch Harkema, community resource officers at the Walker Police Department. They share insights on how their role extends beyond traditional policing; it's about building genuine connections with the community. Tyler and Mitch reveal their strategies for fostering a sense of trust and collaboration, particularly through an inventive use of social media.
Listeners will discover how the Walker Police Department is reshaping perceptions around law enforcement while implementing creative initiatives like community care programs that target local needs. They discuss the proactive steps the officers take to encourage citizen involvement, from providing support to distressed families to hosting open forums for dialogue, such as "Coffee with a Cop."
This episode is not just about policing; it’s about community. Join us as we explore the unique connection between law enforcement and residents, showcasing how genuine relationships can lead to a safer and more engaged community. Subscribe now and don't miss out on inspiring stories that highlight the extraordinary efforts within the Walker community!
Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.
Speaker 2:Well, they don't just protect and serve, they empower and connect. I'm joined today by Tyler Glass and Mitch Harkema. They are the community resource officers for the Walker Police Department. Thank you both so much for taking time out of your busy days to be with us.
Speaker 3:No problem, happy to be here. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2:Of course, and so tell folks who may not be 100% familiar with what exactly community resource officers do, especially in Walker.
Speaker 3:Sure. So the community resource position in Walker is kind of a hybrid officer position. We do a little bit of everything. We're kind of our umbrella is the support services unit and we're specifically responsible for anything that could be related to community engagement, community education, outreach. We have a minor role as school liaisons we're not true school resource officers like some other agencies have but then we just kind of plug and play wherever the department might need a little extra help.
Speaker 2:Of course, and this kind of is really big on relationships. That's pretty much what you're kind of going out and doing in the community for the most part. So how has that been?
Speaker 4:that's kind of refreshing and nice where we're going out and actually interacting with people that are enjoying seeing us, where a lot of times it's law enforcement, it's we're there for, you know, people are in a bad, having a bad day, whatever it is, and it's refreshing now that you're out there and you're interacting a lot more with the kids and and getting out there and just kind of seeing a whole different side of the community, which is kind of nice and refreshing.
Speaker 2:So absolutely, and that relationship connecting um it comes several ways. One way that you do it indirectly or so is social media. You actually run the Walker Police Department page and for those who know it you know the kind of sarcasm, the humor and stuff. But that's all there for a purpose, right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Several years ago, when I first came into the community resource role, we didn't really have a social media presence at all. The city had their own and we had to go through City Hall to get anything posted. And a lot of times it just kind of became a struggle because the urgent things that we need to post like avoid the areas or traffic delays, things like that those needed to be posted right now, and if we weren't able to get a hold of someone at City Hall we couldn't get those messages out. So we really went back to the drawing board and were like maybe we need our own.
Speaker 3:And then when we decided, okay, we're going to take some baby steps, we're going to do a Facebook page, a City of Walker Police Department Facebook page, and thought about what do we want it to look like?
Speaker 3:And we looked at a lot of agencies in our area and it was most of them were based on just here's what the officers did. Here's a call. We went on oh, we had a traffic alert here avoid the area there. So we took a little bit of the recipe from Bath Township Police Department not quite as much as what they do, but we toned that down a little bit because they use a good amount of humor to connect with their community and if you look at a lot of the stuff that they've had on their social media, they get a lot of good feedback and it is nice to see that that recipe has been well received. Our admin at our police department, our leaders of the city, have been very supportive of that. City have been very supportive of that, and it's always fun to be out at community events and hear hey, we really love that post and that something as mundane as like a safety tip, but maybe the way we package it really helps it stick in people's mind and helps us get our message out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and in building that trust, hopefully people can come forward with important information. If you guys are working on cases and such, and have you seen folks take to you guys and the way that you approach people a different way?
Speaker 3:We have. I mean, when we post attempt to identify things, we get some typical ones that come in through silent observer or detective tip line. But a lot of people will message or throw right in the comment section which we prefer them to go the route to get to our detectives and things like that. But even when we're out in the community sometimes they'll say hey, we saw this. Did you guys ever figure out who did that crime or who was responsible for that? We talked about it at this family gathering and we think maybe it was this person. And those are always tips. They come in to us on our desk phones and through our emails too, because they know we are the ones who manage the social media pages and then we can turn those tips over to our detectives and they follow up on those and they do A lot of times. They get some good results from those things.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Tyler, you had mentioned that you just kind of got into this role. How has it been for you?
Speaker 4:You said, it's kind of been a nice breath of fresh air. What have been certain things that kind of stuck out for you? Again, I go back to just kind of when people are reaching out to us. It's not because they're in trouble or something's been going on, but we're now out interacting with people in more of a positive role and it's just nice and refreshing to see and just how supportive the community actually is to us. And being in this role and then connecting with community leaders and businesses and stuff, it's a really nice, refreshing kind of seeing that different aspect of law enforcement in the community as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you point about the community and their involvement, their support. You have a community care initiative that you guys started several years ago and it's really going a long way. What exactly is that and what are you looking for more from the community?
Speaker 3:So in the city of Walker we're pretty blessed to have a very supportive community. They're very supportive of our police department, public safety in general and a lot of times at different events or even on some of our posts, people come. You know, how can we help? How can we give back to the police department? We want to, and one of the things we realized, especially during COVID, was a lot of traditional resources, community resources, that are out there for folks. They get overwhelmed very quickly. Some of them are unavailable or they have very extended wait times and some have even shut down since COVID. So we were looking for some ways like how can we close those gaps? We know we're not going to be the long-term solution, but a lot of times we are the first line that people see when they're looking for a connection to a resource or a place to stay or just some sort of advocacy, and the first number they call is 911 and they see a couple police officers show up.
Speaker 3:So a way that the community has been able to give back is we've well, first we've developed a great partnership with Meijer and that was kind of our baby step into this was Meijer will give us gift cards, and we were able to then give those to people in need as identified by officers on calls for service, because you can get pretty much everything at Meijer right Groceries, clothes, baby items, essential care items, things like that. So that was a good first step. And then one of the things we realized is sometimes, when you have a homeless family who is waiting to find their next place to stay, they've already been connected, like I said, with traditional resources, but there's just a time gap in between point A and point B and they don't deserve to be out on the street. They don't need to be out on the street, or you know just things like that. A lot of times officers were paying for hotel stays out of their own pocket.
Speaker 3:I've done it. I know Officer Glass has done it. A lot of officers at Walker PD, from the top down, have done this, so we're like well, why don't we ask the community to give back here? So the Visa prepaid gift cards are a very easy thing for businesses to throw into their budget, for citizens to donate to our police department. You can drop them off anytime right at our records lobby during business hours and we keep those in a safe right in our sergeant's office and then again, as needs arise and officers identify these things during calls for service, we can grab those and then kind of fill the gaps in between the traditional resources.
Speaker 2:That's a wonderful way. You guys have seen a lot of people come forward and again the community is just so giving. We've said that time and time again, so that's really wonderful to see. There are some outreach that you guys are going to be doing in the next month or so. We're bringing back the coffee for a cop. That is something that you guys have planned.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that is going on March 27th. We have that set up at the Meyerhorn Alpine, so it's 24-25 Alpine. We'll be there from 9 am to 10-30 am. Mitch and I will be there, as well as the Chief of Police. Maybe some other admin as well, as Mayor Gary Carey will be there as well. Just if you have any questions for for us, questions about the community, any concerns, just want to sit down and have a coffee with with your local law enforcement and leaders of the city. We'll be there to just just sit down and have a chat.
Speaker 3:Yeah great way to do that yeah yeah, the nice thing about doing it at the Meyer and Alpine is, as people are coming into shop maybe they're not the usual folks who would come to a coffee with a cop event, but then they see us there because we're pretty much right where you walk in and then they take a few minutes just even just to say hi or chat with, like I said, the mayor, the chief or one of the community officers. It's a great way and it's a pretty popular event for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and where do you guys see the department or the community resources kind of like going into the future and such, because it's only gonna get more and more important.
Speaker 3:We definitely fill the role of the community education piece quite a bit more than what we used to, and I've seen that involve over my years in the community resource unit.
Speaker 3:We used to do a lot of neighborhood watch type meetings and then those numbers dwindled and a lot of people that were coming into the meetings in Walker were not from our city. So there really wasn't much as far as enforcement or information that we could pass along city-specific anymore. So we kind of did away with those and what we do now is we just offer our services to different businesses churches, schools what topic do you think we could come into your place and help you train on? Because ultimately anything we can do to help them in a critical incident will help our response also if they're a little bit better trained on what to expect or how to react, and those numbers have gone up over time. The schools are very responsive to our training A lot of places of worship, businesses we were just out doing those lessons last week and pretty much all three of those things a church, a school and a business so I think that will continue to be popular in the future.
Speaker 2:And any business organization within Walker can ask for that kind of training. How do they get a hold of you and how do they kind of set that up?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean you can either one call the police department, ask to be forwarded to the community resource department Right now, with the two of us in here. Now the city's split up into two different districts, so we have the North District, which is everything north of Remembrance that's where I'm in control of now and taking care of things up there and then Officer Harkema here. He's south of Remembrance, so anything south of that he'll handle that. So you can simply call in. We have our emails. You can email us, call our office phones, anything like that. We're pretty readily available to speak with you and help you out with any needs you have.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and I imagine that you're looking for more folks, more wonderful people, to join the police department. What, in particular, can you say to them, to those folks who may be interested?
Speaker 3:So the first thing is we are hiring anytime. Just hit the city website on the career opportunities page of the police department portion of the website and you can set up an account to drop in an application. We would love lateral transfers. If you have law enforcement experience, we have a lateral package where you come in, being paid basically whatever your years of service are. So if you have four or more years of service at your previous department, you can come to the City Walker and start out at our topped out rate. We also have a cadet program. We'll be looking for some more probably freshman and college age folks to fill our cadet roles later this year.
Speaker 3:Again, just maintain a following of our social media, our Facebook page. You'll see a lot more information about that. You'll see Officer Glass and I out at a lot of recruiting events, career fairs, things like that. We just want good people to work here, people who fit in with our family unit here at the police department and really get a get a good flavor of what the city of Walker has to offer. You know we're a mid-range department but we still have a lot of opportunities within the department, as a bigger department would. So we just like I said we want some people who will fit into the community and not be afraid to get out of a cruiser, make those business contacts walk through a school, get out on a playground, shoot some hoops with a kid and then obviously doing the traffic enforcement calls for service and things like that too.
Speaker 2:And then obviously doing the traffic enforcement calls for service and things like that too, but we have a little bit more of a community flavor here. Yes, yeah, and what do you think it is about the Walker community that makes it so special, like why you like working here?
Speaker 4:Well, I so I I've been in law enforcement for just over 10 years now and I did my first five with the city of Rockford and now I'm just over five with the city of Walker and I've been blessed with both, both places to be, with a great supportive community in both areas supportive community, supportive, supportive administration, supportive, you know, mayor and city council and stuff like that. I mean just all together and in just the support we have as law enforcement, having that backing behind us, as when the support between the community and the city itself is just huge. And and just coming from both places, I mean just the sense of community. I know we just did the winter fest there and I thought that was a very cool event there with with the Kennewa Hills band playing and and the community there and all the kids having fun. I mean just having that sense of community. I think is is really fun, really cool, and I've been lucky to at both places to have that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and anything you would add, mitch.
Speaker 3:No, I mean just really to echo what he said. We have such a nice supportive community. It's so refreshing to go out, especially on a summer day, with the window down in your cruiser and have people wave to you with all the fingers on their hand or say something nice to you. Just the cards that we get at the department, the people who stop by. You know people that bake us cookies or invite us, like I said, invite us into our homes to do a neighborhood watch meeting. We don't really seek those things out. Very often you may see a post that said, hey, we're available if you need it. But people take advantage of those things. They want us to come and that's such a nice feeling to want to be wanted in a position like this, where sometimes that's not the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you guys have done an incredible job building up that community resource department and we're extremely fortunate to have you in the Walker community. Thank you both so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you For being here today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Made in Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.
