JSO looks for ways to improve its relationship with community members on Eastside

Creating trust between the community and police officers. That was the goal Saturday at  the Bethune-Cookman University Center for Law and Social Justice.

Randy L. Sewell has been a  pastor at Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church in his Eastside community for 13 years and on Saturday morning he watched as JSO officials sat down to talk with people who live in his neighborhood.

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“It’s very important for us as a community to be able to trust them. For a long time we haven’t had them here in the community,” said Sewell.

Sewell says many in his congregation say  they’re afraid to  approach a police officer.

“And rightly so because of certain instances that have happened within the community and what we see nationwide. The fear is real,” he said.

That fear is something Randy Nelson, the director of the criminal justice program at Bethune-Cookman University, is trying to change.

Nelson says JSO reached out to BCU to find ways to improve the relationship between people of color and police officers.

“So the first phase is training law enforcement, training law enforcement on just the historical reasoning behind some of the distrust,” said Nelson.

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Nelson tells us it’s not only a partnership between JSO adn the college, but with the community, which is why they chose Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church as the place to meet and talk about solutions.

One of the solutions the group talked about is creating a more diverse police force in Jacksonville.

Last year BCU found that 74% of JSO officers were white, 16% were African American, 6%Hispanic, 2% were Asian and less than 1% reported another race.

“There are young men and young women in the community that would be value added to the law enforcement profession, but based on media, based on things they’ve seen lived or shared, they don’t see law enforcement for them,” said Nelson.

In 2018 the group met in zone 4 on the Westside, another community plagued by violence.

Sewell says JSO can help change that by building a relationship with kids in the neighborhood.

“Talking to our boys and building a relationship with them and maybe try to influence some of our boys to become police officers themselves,” said Sewell.

This is the third time neighborhood BCU leaders have worked in to improve relationships between JSO and the community.

The researchers will take their findings from Saturday’s meeting and create a new report to help find solutions.

Cox Media Group