AUSTELL, Ga. — The Austell Police Department is working to bridge gaps between law enforcement and the community.
Right now, officers at the department are a part of a little more than 60 community engagement events and programs in the county. Some have been around for a while. Others are fairly new.
“It is so important for our police department to connect positively with the people in our community and the community that they serve,” Quintasha Swanson with the Austell Police Department said.
When Austell police officers aren’t fighting crime, they say they are finding ways to engage with the community.
“We do things like National Night Out, which will be coming up in August. We do our Faith in Blue. We recently, in December, did Toys for Tots,” Swanson said.
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Swanson was the brains behind Popsicles with Police.
“These are the types of things that we have to continue to do to make sure we are bridging that gap between police and community,” Swanson said.
The department held the third annual Popsicles with Police event earlier this week.
“It was actually my idea a few years ago under our former Chief Scott Hamilton, and he loved it so much, so we are going to keep it going,” Swanson said.
Through music, games, and ice cream, children and youth have the ability to view police beyond the badge.
For parents, it’s an opportunity to learn more about the men and women who patrol their neighborhoods.
The event expanded this year to provide families access to resources they may need.
“We wanted to connect them with any and all resources that we have locally because we don’t have the public transportation right here, so we wanted to make sure we bring the resources to the community =
Those resources were provided through a number of vendors, including WellStar.
Austell PD said it is working on introducing new community engagement programs to this area.
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