When Police Chief Garrett Shelton interacts with members of the community, he’ll frequently ask if they can tell him the name of the department’s comfort dog. Pretty much everybody knows it’s Grover.
But when he asks if they know the name of Grover’s handler, they’re stumped.
That’s because even though the officer – Adam Watson – is wearing a nametag, he’s also always wearing his police uniform. Shelton says that can be a barrier.
“The reason nobody sees the name is because of the barrier,” Shelton said. “And Grover doesn’t have a barrier. That’s what my end goal here is – to break the barriers.”
Toward that end, the PD is implementing two programs for the fall semester designed to increase engagement with students – a Citizen/Student Police Academy and Adopt-A-Cop.
“Law enforcement work is sometimes viewed as a secret society where you just don’t know what’s going on,” Shelton said. “And there really are no secrets.”
The Citizen/Student Academy, which is already at capacity with 15 students, kicks off Sept. 7 and will meet once a week for 10 weeks. Each session will last two hours. Officers Andrea Pate and Tommy Evans are coordinating the program.
“It’s 10 weeks of immersion,” said Shelton, whose officers annually respond to 15,000 calls for service. “We bring our community into our police department, and we open the doors on pretty much everything that we do.”
Among topics tentatively scheduled are alcohol awareness and drunken driving, a K-9 demonstration, crime scene investigation, threat assessment and dealing with emergency medical situations. Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi is scheduled to speak, as are representatives from Norfolk’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office and the Norfolk PD’s homicide section.
“Law enforcement work is sometimes viewed as a secret society where you just don’t know what’s going on. And there really are no secrets.” - Police Chief Garrett Shelton
Students will also go to a shooting range and to Norfolk State University’s force simulator, a room where people are placed in situations police face on the street.
Shelton said the vast majority of PD officers are involved in the program.
“My goal is that if you come in with a viewpoint you have Day 1, that we have a positive impact on you before the end of week 10. And if your viewpoint is still where it was, that’s fine,” Shelton said. “But we opened our doors to be transparent about what we do and how we do it.”
The Adopt-A-Cop program will assign two police officers to each residence hall that typically houses first-year students. Officers will come to the buildings’ common areas during downtime on their shifts to engage with students on a personal level.
“I am a huge fan of community engagement, and that’s what I want the Adopt-A-Cop program to do,” Shelton said. “Allow us to engage at the basic level and get to know each other so when we’re passing in Webb Center or going to a football game or out in the community the students aren’t afraid to come up and have a conversation. I do expect us to get to a point quickly that when the officers walk in the door the folks there know who they are, why they’re there and hopefully know them by name.”
Each officer will have a department phone, and the number will be given to residents to reach out concerning non-emergency situations. For emergencies, students still need to call PD at 683-4000 or 911.
The Citizen/Student Police Academy and Adopt-A-Cop initiatives expand on PD’s already-extensive community outreach. Last year, officers participated in 330 community events, Shelton said. The department also recently started a podcast designed to “get to know the people behind the uniforms.” Here are some links: ; ; ; and .
“If you can’t get past the barrier and learn who the person is, then you’ll never get to a point where you can have trust and transparency,” Shelton said.