Owensboro Police Chief Art Ealum accepted an invitation to the White House on Friday, September 16th for a briefing of the 21st Century Task Force on Policing Recommendations.
Started on December 18, 2014, by the executive order of President Obama, the task force was a way of bringing public safety officials and senior administration officials together to further the efforts of strengthening the relationships between communities and their local law enforcement agencies.
During this session, Chief Ealum engaged in discussions regarding the six pillars of The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing:
- Building Trust and Legitimacy
- Policy and Oversight
- Technology and Social Media
- Community Policing and Crime Reduction
- Officer Training and Education
- Officer Safety and Wellness
Chief Ealum was excited to note that the Owensboro Police Department was well above the curve in terms of implementation of the recommendations because OPD has policed in this manner for many years. We will continue to improve our community policing efforts with an enhanced focus on officer safety and wellness and implicit bias training.
With the new knowledge obtained from this recent briefing, new ideas that are working for other agencies nationwide just might find their way to Owensboro.
