Earning Trust Through Relational Policing

by Chief Sheryl Victorian, Commander Jared Wallace and Public Information Officer Cierra Shipley, Waco Police Department

The Waco Police Department (WPD) is committed to earning TRUST through Relational Policing.

“Relational Policing is a philosophy focusing on principles of creating genuine cooperative relationships between the police and the citizens of Waco, Texas. WPD is committed to making every contact count by being Transparent, Respectful, Engaging, building Emotional Capital, and being Accountable to earn the TRUST of the citizens we serve.”

The philosophy of Relational Policing was introduced to the Waco Police Department in March 2021 by Chief Sheryl Victorian after learning about, operationalizing, and branding the idea while working as a Commander and Assistant Chief for the Houston Police Department.

Unlike Community Policing, which primarily focuses on partnering with the community to identify and prevent crimes impacting the quality of life, Relational Policing focuses on the foundation of working in concert with others, building trust. Trust is fundamental

to attaining high-performing partnerships and highperforming teams. For Community Policing to be effective and sustainable, there must be trust. Relational Policing seeks to build this trust through transparency, respect, engagement, building emotional capital, and accountability.

Transparency

Transparency involves timely and honest communication, information sharing, and vulnerability. In policing, transparency does not necessarily mean “laying everything out on the table.” Sometimes, it means saying, “We cannot share that information at the moment, but we will as soon as we can.”

Respect

Committing to making every contact count requires officers to treat everyone with respect and dignity. Every contact with a citizen, whether a complainant, witness, or suspect, is an opportunity for us to build trust.

Engagement

Engagement is an opportunity for police departments to connect with the residents they serve. This is done by hosting and attending events, being approachable, identifying commonalities, and humanizing the police profession.

Emotional Capital

Building emotional capital is essential in policecommunity relationships, specifically, when an unfortunate event occurs that may negatively impact the agency or the profession. Emotional capital is earned through transparency, mutual respect, and engagement and is demonstrated when the community extends grace and allows leadership to investigate, address, and when necessary, hold themselves accountable for a negative event.

Accountability

In policing, internal and external accountability are the impetus for legitimizing the profession. Police officers have been given incredible responsibility and discretion as it relates to the performance of their duties. Therefore, it is required that we are impartial and equitable when using the powers bestowed on us and that we act with integrity in our personal and professional lives.

TRUST

The above tenets, transparency, respect, engagement, building emotional capital, and accountability, are the fundamental principles we use to build trust in our community and are the foundation for effective partnerships and collaborations.

The members of the Waco Police Department have dedicated themselves to Relational Policing and our efforts have been demonstrated by the many ways in which we create genuine relationships with the citizens and communities we serve. There are hundreds of interactions each day between members and visitors of our community and Waco Police Officers. Whether it is in response to a call to 911, an accident investigation, or simply an interaction with the public at a convenience store or restaurant, our officers consistently build trust by treating people with respect and dignity. Studies have shown that when police departments focus on improving the measure of trust and legitimacy communities have in their police services, crime in these communities is reduced. We are happy to see the results of the hard work by the men and women of the Waco Police Department: reduced crime here in Waco. The Waco Police Patrol Officers are the ones interacting with our community on a minute-by-minute basis; they have even received praise from the citizens they interact with. Following a traffic stop, a citizen took the time to message the department about the kindness an officer showed when she was nervous – offering her a piece of gum to calm her. Other times, compliments have been given after a patrol officer has gone out of their way to help a citizen in need when no one else would. Whether that was helping them find a place to stay for the night, helping someone with their vehicle or offering compassion during a traffic stop, these are all moments of trust that were built.

When Chief Victorian joined WPD, the department began creating our own engagement activities beyond the annual National Night Out, which brings neighbors together with first responders to get to know each other and celebrate safe communities. We began by hosting events at the police station, thinking that if we were to welcome the community

into our home, they would see us as legitimate members of their community and be more willing to consider us partners. Our Back to School Bash in August 2021 was the first time we hosted a community event at our police station. It was a resounding success! We gave away backpacks and school supplies, danced and played games with children, and partnered with barbers and stylists

to provide free haircuts so children could look their best on the first day of school. Proudly, we followed up the success of the Back to School Bash with our first Trunk or Treat event, also hosted at our police station. To our amazement, the community came out beyond anything we had ever imagined! Hundreds of community members brought their children to our event. It took two hours for families who arrived at the start of the event to make it through all the community partners giving away candy at our police station. By the second event, we had already outgrown our ability to hold events at our police station! Studies have also shown that police departments that build trust and legitimacy in their community also see the number of participants in their engagement activities increase.

It is amazing how community participation in our engagement events has increased in three years. The 2023 Back to School Bash was held at a local shopping

mall. The lines of families stretched the length of the mall inside and doubled back on itself outside of the mall. We gave away approximately 1,200 backpacks filled with supplies. Again, children played games and interacted with police officers, K-9, and SWAT officers and local barbers and stylists donated their time to provide free haircuts to children. The WacoMcLennan County Public Health District provided free immunizations. The Lions Club also provided free vision screenings. Everyone had a great time connecting with Waco families and preparing our young students for their new school year. Our most recent Trunk or Treat was held at Waco ISD Stadium in partnership with the Waco ISD Police Department. Over 2,400 people attended our event before we ran out of candy to give away. These events are great opportunities for citizens to experience our Relational Policing at work and see the more human side of policing.

In 2022, WPD partnered with local faith organizations to create events bringing police officers together with our local faith community during National Faith & Blue Weekend. We were hoping to hold a few events. Instead, our local faith community blessed us with 12 community events. In 2023, WPD turned National Faith & Blue Weekend into National Faith & Blue Week and held 29 Faith & Blue events over nine days in early October. Over 2,700 people attended, giving us 2,700 opportunities to build trust and improve relationships with members of our community.

WPD builds Relational Policing through smaller events and activities as well. Officers attend every neighborhood association meeting in our city to hear and respond to our citizens’ concerns. Officers also regularly attend community gatherings and neighborhood events. These are opportunities for officers to build relationships with residents and provide a platform for them to have a voice in how we serve our community.

Although it is much easier to build relationships with community members who already trust their local police department, our goal is to build partnerships with all community members. Therefore, we are very intentional about the way we seek to build relationships with members who have traditionally been underserved by the police or with whom there has been very little trust or understanding. Our relationships must be recognized as equitable and impartial for all citizens we serve.

For example, one of our officers came up with the idea of bringing job opportunities, mentoring, academic support, social services, and life skills to youth and young adults in an area of the community that has been traditionally underserved. The goal of this event is to serve the young people where they are, rather than expecting them to find services on their own. In 2023, our Community Opportunity Event featured over 100 service providers who connected with over 3,000 community members.

UNIDOS is a police program that focuses on building relationships with Spanish-speaking members of our community. Many of them come from countries where police officers cannot be trusted due to corruption and graft. WPD officers and professional civilians participate in UNIDOS by hosting community events in Spanish designed to build trust and share information related to quality of life concerns the residents may have. This year, the UNIDOS team was able to reach over 20,000 community members through Facebook, local meetings, and events. The

UNIDOS team participated in 31 events, 38 meetings, and community-based quarterly meetings. The UNIDOS team provided the community with car seat safety training, and fire safety training, answered questions about the Municipal Court system, and provided the Spanish-speaking community a safe environment to communicate with law enforcement without fear, while building trust with WPD.

We place great effort in creating positive experiences when we interact with children. WPD formed a new Police Athletic League (PAL) organization in 2023. Through a grant-funded partnership with Transformation Waco, we began PAL after-school activities with J.H. Hines Elementary School fifth graders in fall 2023 to mentor, coach, and engage with students each week. Officers will continue to engage with the students for the next four academic years as they transition to middle school. Additionally, the program will continue to grow as officers connect with another class of J.H. Hines fifth grade students each year. We are in the process of expanding PAL beyond this partnership with Transformation Waco to include other relationshipbuilding opportunities with youth in our community.

WPD officers will begin teaching the Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence (LEAD) curriculum to local students. LEAD is an evidencebased, 10-week, K-12 curriculum designed to provide students with skills and knowledge to apply when confronted with decisions regarding drugs, bullying, and violence. WPD has six officers and professional civilians trained to teach the curriculum and is planning with local school leaders to implement the classes for the 2024-2025 school year.

During the 2023 holiday season, WPD worked with the local Marine Corps Unit leading the Toys for Tots program in Waco. Several officers assisted the Marines while they distributed toys to over 500 families. After the completion of the Toys for Tots giveaway, the Marines donated several boxes of toys to help the WPD Blue Santa program. Blue Santa was able to provide toys to 46 families our patrol officers identified in need, providing toys for 198 children. Our patrol officers also spread holiday cheer by passing out toys to children while patrolling in the community.

Unfortunately, some circumstances make it difficult to create a positive experience for children due to the traumatic incidents we investigate, such as family violence, car accidents, and the death of loved ones. Experiences such as these are likely to cause emotional trauma that can become an Acute Childhood Experience (ACE) beyond the day of the

incident. To provide a more harm-focused response to ACEs, WPD became one of the first police agencies in Texas to participate in the Handle with Care Program. WPD provides a confidential notification to school districts across the state whenever a student at one of their campuses has been witness to a traumatic event we investigate. Schools only learn that their student has witnessed a traumatic event that could cause harm, with no details given. The goal of this program is to pass along information that a traumatic event occurred that could impact the student’s ability to interact and perform in school, allowing the teachers and counselors to handle the situation with care.

One might ask, how is something like Handle with Care related to Relational Policing? Building cooperative partnerships with local service providers who can assist with serving our community members with equity, respect, and dignity is an important part of Relational Policing. On many occasions, police interact with citizens when one of the most traumatizing experiences of their lives has occurred. Investigative responsibilities of police officers, coupled with the grief, pain, or fear of the citizen, can create situations where officers appear to be heartless and without empathy. Building relationships with victim service counselors, chaplains, and advocates is very

important to reduce the harm of the incident, and necessary to maintain the relationship with victims and family members of victims. Additionally, much of what police officers are asked to do by the public has nothing to do with crime or policing. Therefore, working with others who are experts in behavioral health, education, life skills, housing, and shelter is also an important part of our Relational Policing philosophy.

The Waco Police Department takes pride in the trust established with the community, nevertheless, our work is not done. This is through effective and efficient communication with the citizens of Waco, our local media partners, and those who are here for a short time, visiting our great city. With our multitude of social media platforms, the podcast Waco PD on the BEAT, and simply having conversations day to day we strive to keep the public informed about what goes on in their city, good and bad.

We ended 2023 on a record-breaking 20-year crime decrease and we have shown what the power of trust and transparency hold between community and police. When crime increases, we talk about it. We explain to our community why a certain crime trend is happening and steps they can take to remain safe. We are pleased when crime in our community