Police Access and Community Engagement (P.A.C.E)

What is P.A.C.E?

The South Hadley Police Access and Community Engagement is team of South Hadley Police Department officers with varying backgrounds and professional experiences who are tasked with developing strategies to strengthen the relationship between the police and community we serve.

Why P.A.C.E?

There is much evidence that the criminal justice system has biases.  The eyes of the nation are on police departments to be the leader in the entirety of the criminal justice system in combating racism.  As a proactive, modern, and committed police department, the South Hadley Police must be reflective of agency actions and practices.  The South Hadley Police strive to be proactive and responsive to concerns from community stakeholders regarding the way police services are provided and we acknowledge that some members of the community perceive biases in police activities.   In taking action to address biases, perceived or otherwise, the South Hadley Police Department is committed to critical review of our practices and services provided.   The South Hadley community deserves from us the opportunity to be heard, engaged with and to monitor our operations. The South Hadley P.A.C.E team will help guide these agency wide efforts.

GOAL and Objectives of P.A.C.E:  

P.A.C.E strives to improve the success and professionalism of the South Hadley Police Department by enhancing access to police services and police engagement with all South Hadley community members in an equitable and fair manner.  

OBJECTIVES:

1. Engage with the community regarding agency priorities and governance. 
2. Deliver equitable police services absent all biases including racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic. 
3. Improve transparency in practices and agency decisions.
4. Review equity of services that are provided to the community.

What might P.A.C.E. look like?:

While the P.A.C.E team is new, below are some tasks that the P.A.C.E team has prioritized.  

• Bring a positive light to policing through education with promoting agency personnel, communicating agency practices, services provided, and training received.
• Provide online, virtual, and in-person forums for community members to make inquires and share information regarding agency practices.
• Analyze written policies, current and pending, with a lens of bias indicators, equity, and good stewardship of community resources.
• Improve Department social media and website for enhanced transparency and engagement.
• Review allocation of department resources, shifts, assignments, zones, calls for service to ensure equity in access of public safety services.  
• Analyze Traffic Enforcement priorities to determine where/when to assign resources for traffic enforcement in manner that is it fair, equitable, data driven, and not based on other influence.  
• Improve training and supervision to reduce and prevent racially biased policing.

Patience and fortitude conquer all things. Ralph Waldo Emerson