Page last updated on June 22, 2022 at 3:08 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives.
TRANSCRIPT
John Hamilton:
Hi, I'm Mayor John Hamilton.
Don Griffin:
And I'm Don Griffin, Deputy Mayor. Today, we're going to talk about policing, policing in Bloomington, and the future of policing. I want to start with questions about new incentives.
John Hamilton:
We have a lot going on in policing this week, this kind of these updates. One of the first ones is that we announced some new incentives. Our police officers are getting recruited by other places. It's hard to hire police officers these days. With the city council, we've put in place some new programs to help keep and attract police officers, including signing bonuses for already-trained officers to bring them to Bloomington. We've got retention bonuses in place. We're doing more housing support. We're going to offer folks rent assistance and even purchase assistance in the city, take-home cars, and other things like that. We have a great police department, nationally accredited, one of the best around, and we need to do all that we can to help keep them. And those incentives were some of the things we announced this week.
Don Griffin:
Now, you mentioned purchase incentives. What's that mean?
John Hamilton:
Buying a home. Help them buy a home in the city.
Don Griffin:
Oh wow. Okay. That's a great segue to our next topic on the list–neighborhood roll calls. For those who may not know, roll calls are when officers get together before a shift starts to receive specific assignments and pertinent information for the day. How will this new initiative work?
John Hamilton:
This is a neat idea, I think, that the Bloomington Police Department's going to try out in various neighborhoods in the city, and that is to have a mobile field office. We actually have a vehicle that can be used as a field office. We're going to do the roll calls with the field office and the officers in their cars in different locations, probably in parking lots or parks or different places, where at the start of their shift, they're going to meet there in the neighborhood instead of in the downtown police office where they usually meet. And that does a couple of things. It gets our officers all out in the particular neighborhood at a particular time. But also lets neighbors come and see the police, so people are actually welcome to come to see the roll call, see the vehicle, and get to know the officers.
Don Griffin:
Very neat. That's very neat. Well, that's never been done before here in Bloomington.
John Hamilton:
Not as far as I know.
Don Griffin:
Okay. Next, let's talk about the Future of Policing task force that we have.
John Hamilton:
This week also, where we continue to have progress with this community-led, this is not city-led, it's really community-led Future of Policing taskforce. They're really thinking about what should the police department be like in five years and in 10 years, and in 20 years? And they've been giving out interim reports. We're sharing some of that information. If people want to get involved, we welcome that. We want more information and more feedback. That includes things, one of the things they recommended was doing police incentives to try to retain and attract the very best high-quality officers that we want. So, that group continues to work and is continuing to recommend how we improve our policing here in the city.
Don Griffin:
Okay. So, it's led by communities, but they work with the city to come up with new ideas for the future of policing.
John Hamilton:
Absolutely.
Don Griffin:
Oh, great. Now, there are many more details about the topics we discussed today, and we encourage you to visit the city's website to learn more. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Don Griffin.
John Hamilton:
And I'm Mayor John Hamilton. Thanks a lot.
Related News Releases
Bloomington Police Department Plans Mobile Roll Calls in Neighborhoods–Click here.
Bloomington Police Department Offers New Hiring and Retention Incentives–Click here.
Future of Policing Task Force Releases Initial Report–Click here.