Martinsville City Council heard an update on the Martinsville Police Community Check-in program during its Sept. 8 meeting and honored Sheriff Stephen Draper with a posthumous Key to the City and proclamation, recognizing his 35 years of dedicated service to the City of Martinsville and his lasting commitment to the community.
Draper passed away Aug. 29 after serving as Martinsville’s Sheriff for more than three decades.
The council also held a public hearing and approved the city’s comprehensive plan, Martinsville Momentum. The Arts and Culture Master Plan also was approved.
Martinsville Police Chief Chad Rhoads said the Police Community Check-in program was developed in response to requests to revamp the Neighborhood Watch program.
“The Martinsville Police Community Check-in program is something that I’ve worked on and developed in response to requests for a revamping of the Neighborhood Watch program,” Rhoads said. “This is our opportunity to reconnect with the community members who are interested in Neighborhood Watch. And it’s also an opportunity for us to proactively reach out to them. I don’t know that the best way for people to talk to the police department about their community issues and interests is to come to a meeting. Perhaps it’s better if we just reach out to them and talk to them where they’re at and when it’s convenient to them.”
The program allows residents to sign up to receive check-ins either in person or by phone. Residents can choose to receive a check-in every two weeks or every four weeks and will be assigned an officer.
Rhoads said the department has not determined how many residents each officer will be assigned.
“You may have one person to check in with. Officers may have 20 people to check in with. But we’re going to make that call. We’ll reach out to them. We’ll hear their concerns about the community, and we’re going to keep track of these things. These concerns are going to be tracked to ensure that there’s closure.”
Rhoads said the program is similar to the city’s existing “SeeClickFix” program but could reach residents who are less comfortable using computers.
“Except this, I think, is going to reach a demographic that’s not entirely comfortable using computers,” he said.
The program also is intended to provide residents with a way to raise concerns while maintaining confidentiality, Rhoads said.
“So this is our way of sorting out and hearing those concerns. Something very important we want to ensure them is that names are going to be kept confidential. We have had FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) concerns with this thing, but in talking to some FOIA officers, I think that if we have them, when they sign this guarantee of confidentiality, their names can’t be released under these things.
“So we will address these issues anonymously so that fear shouldn’t factor in programs designed to, of course, increase community trust in law enforcement. It’ll also improve communication between residents and police. And our hope is that it helps us to identify crime trends earlier,” he said.
Rhoads said the program could help officers identify concerns in neighborhoods where they may not otherwise spend much time.
“We don’t live in those neighborhoods. We tend to drive through those,” he said. “But if we’re reaching out to the citizens and they are voicing their concerns to us, it’s going to help us identify those crime trends a bit earlier.”
Rhoads said he also hopes the program will improve residents’ quality of life.
The program is expected to roll out in early October.
The council also discussed and approved a resolution amending the City of Martinsville’s Emergency Operations Plan, as well as discussed and approved a resolution adopting a cash reserve policy for the city’s refuse, water/wastewater and electric enterprise funds.
The council also discussed and approved authorizing the city attorney to file a petition with the Circuit Court on behalf of the city and authorized a special election for November.
