Encounters with the law can be stressful or scary, including interacting with an officer in blue, whose duty it is to keep people safe.
As a result, police departments across the country are taking a new approach to policing in an effort to change the public perception of law enforcement officers.
Padraic Ingle and Andy Caplan of the Durango Police Department are familiar faces in downtown Durango. They watch kids land tricks at Durango Skate Park and initiate conversations with bicyclists on the Animas River Trail.
As officers with DPD’s Community Engagement Team, their mission is simple: Building trust and relationships between law enforcement and residents.
“We want to make sure that people have a positive perception of the department,” Ingle said. “We like to get out on the street and interact with the community.”
Maintaining an active presence by walking and biking the streets of Durango is a big part of their mission of community engagement.
Familiarizing themselves with residents and tourists lets people know that police officers are not unlike civilians, Caplan said.
“We try to have conversations about more than police work,” he said. “I want people to know that when I’m off work, I like to do the same things that other people like to do.”
Through activities such as “Coffee with a Cop,” residents have the opportunity to interact one-on-one with an officer and ask questions.
The Community Engagement Team was created in June after DPD command staff recognized the need for a team of officers to work in close liaison with residents.
“A big portion of the department’s vision statement centers around collaboration with citizens to make Durango the best place to live and work it can be,” said Sgt. Deck Shaline, who oversees the team. “That, in a nutshell, is what our CET team does. They let citizens know we are in this together, and this is a partnership.”
Their day-to-day activities vary depending on the community’s needs.
It is not uncommon for Ingle and Caplan to go from educating bar owners on better business practices to introducing themselves to business owners and shoppers on Main Avenue.
“Part of this job is being proactive by addressing and analyzing crime statistics, and creating projects we can implement,” Ingle said. “We start out the morning in the office going through emails and pick what we are working on that day. There is no set day sometimes.”
Ingle and Caplan play a variety of roles, including educator and enforcer.
“We educate citizens on how to respond to the most common incidents that occur,” Ingle said. “We’ve done some security consultations with restaurants. … We can’t tell them what to do, but we can make suggestions.”
The Durango Public Library and Animas Surgical Hospital, among other businesses, have recently reached out to request active threat training, Ingle said.
“We make sure they are proactive with ensuring their employees are safe,” he said. “It is a good way to let people into the policing world when we do education with businesses.”
Ingle said police officers work with about 5 percent of the population on a daily basis, and those interactions are often stressful.
“Out of that 5 percent, about 3 percent are having a major crisis such as a theft or robbery,” he said. “Two percent are people making poor choices. In that sense, you aren’t going to have a friendly conversation with a police officer.”
As such, one goal of the Community Engagement Team is to cast police officers in a different light.
“We want to create that positive interaction so that when you do have a bad day, you feel comfortable talking to a person in uniform,” Ingle said.
It isn’t uncommon for Ingle and Caplan to step in for patrol officers if needed.
“It’s a rare week if we don’t respond to a traditional patrol call at least once or twice,” Caplan said. “We do supplement patrol, and we are happy to do it.”
They focus their efforts on the Central Business District during the summer months when people are more active in town and are no strangers to the hot-button issue of homelessness in Durango.
Ingle said there is an important distinction to make between homeless residents and transients.
“There are homeless people who live in Durango and have jobs,” he said. “They contribute to society and are responsible members of the community who have chosen a different lifestyle or are down on their luck.”
Transients, on the other hand, take advantage of the goodwill of residents and tourists, he said.
“In the summers, we get transients,” Ingle said. “This is not their community or home. There are homeless people who care about this community, and there are transients that take advantage.”
Regardless of a person’s intention, Ingle and Caplan help people however they can.
“We educate nonhomeless citizens on how they can respond to homelessness, and better ways to be benevolent and empathetic,” Ingle said. “We work with homeless people who are panhandling to know what their rights are, and also businesses to know what their rights are. We educate both parties.”
They also work closely with Manna soup kitchen to offer support for homeless residents, including helping them with rehabilitation efforts and finding housing and jobs.
Getting on a first-name basis with business owners and residents in a town of more than 18,000 people is a challenge for Ingle and Caplan, who sometimes find themselves stretched thin.
But there are plans to expand the team in the future when the resources are available, Ingle said.
“We find ourselves at times over-extended, but we knew that was going to happen,” he said. “We have to bounce around a lot. I’m pretty confident we are going to get more officers very soon.”
Although it can be difficult to measure the scope of success of the Community Engagement Team, having positive interactions with residents makes it all worthwhile, Ingle said.
Their supervisor couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments and ability to take charge.
“They jumped right into it pretty fearless, and I think they excelled,” Shaline said. “They are really well-liked by the community and are able to get out there and provide a lot of that face-to-face time.”
mrupani@durangoherald.com
