Taking a look at law enforcement community engagement efforts

AUSTIN (KXAN) — During the holiday season in Central Texas, several law enforcement agencies participate in the Blue Santa program, where departments collect and deliver toys — but efforts to engage with the community happen year-round.

The Austin Police Department, for example, makes efforts to hold quarterly meetings in each district.

"We invite them to look at statistics, highlight the good work officers do, meet community members, have community members meet the officers, and address some of the issues in the community that they want to highlight to us," said Sgt. William Beck, who oversees patrol officers in the southeast pocket of the city. "The last one, we actually had a really high level of community engagement, in particular the Parker and Oltorf area that has really helped highlight some of the issues and encouraged the community to take more action."

Not all meetings have that same level of engagement, however, Beck said. He also added these types of meetings can't always be facilitated, citing two major challenges: time and staff numbers.

"We just don't have the officers to be able to be as robust as we want to be," he said. "But the ones we do have are doing a great job."

In smaller municipalities, where officers don't have as many 911 calls to prioritize, there can often be more flexibility in conducting engagement efforts on a daily basis.

"We're not call driven, so we're encouraged to be proactive, we stay proactive," said Officer Jonathan Taylor with the Bee Cave Police Department. About 9,000 people live in Bee Cave. "We can walk in somewhere, they're happy to see us, happy to talk with us."

There are also more unconventional means officers attempt to engage with the community, as seen through Detective Scott Baldridge and Sgt. Ben Mewis with APD. They've taken on several crazy running endeavors over the last three years, sharing their journeys on social media so the public can follow along and cheer them on.

One of the top priorities for APD's new chief, Lisa Davis, who started in September, is to gather as much input from the community as possible during her first 100 days with APD. You can find and fill out her public safety survey here.