Last month our neighborhood lost a valuable resource. Grand Rapids Police Officer Jeremy Huffman served our neighborhood for the past eleven years forming relationships with the people that lived in and did business in the eastown neighborhood. He took a preventative approach to curbing crime. Instead of responding to problems when they happened, he looked for ways to prevent crime.
Community policing or neighborhood policing is a policing strategy and philosophy based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear, with community members helping to identify suspects, detain vandals and bring problems to the attention of police.[1]
I have only lived in the neighborhood for a few years now but an elderly lady that came to show support for Jeremy in a peaceful protest last month told the story for us. She has lived in the neighborhood almost all her life and witnessed the transformation that this approach to policing had on the community. This was a valuable learning experience for me and I will never think of a police department of only being capable of reactions again.
Members of the Eastown community gathered in the cold outside of the Kava House Coffee Shop. They were standing to celebrate the service of Grand Rapids Police Officer Jeremy Huffman who has been the community officer in Eastown for eleven years. Budget cuts are forcing Huffman back out onto general patrol duties.[1]
Here are a few new stations that showed up at the gathering…