HomeStories and NewsSuccess StoriesHopkinsville, Ky., residents address community-police relations

Hopkinsville, Ky., residents address community-police relations

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August 13, 2010 | | Hopkinsville, Kentucky

The primary goal of the program is to build off of the momentum from the initial round of study circles by bringing people from diverse backgrounds to the table to discuss racial and ethnic inequities and how racism is affecting the city of Hopkinsville.

Starting in 2007, the Human Relations Commission launched “Hoptown-Our Town”—a large-scale community dialogue—to bring people together to address racial tensions between townspeople and public safety officials.

Because nearly half of the prison inmates in the region are people of color, community leaders realized they needed to look for solutions.

More than 100 Hopkinsville residents took part in the dialogues. Among other things, they took a hard look at the root causes of racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

With support from the Human Relations Commission, Hoptown-Our Town has paved the way for change. At an October 2009 action forum, dialogue participants came up with a number of plans. By February 2010, the following steps had been taken:

• The chief of police and sheriff signed a joint proclamation supporting the recommendations from the dialogue participants.
• The Hopkinsville Police Department scheduled its first diversity training for March 2010.
• Seven small grants were awarded to local organizations, with the aim of improving community-police relations.
• Hopkinsville’s leaders, including the police chief, sheriff, and county attorney, agreed to support recommendations for building better relations between residents and public safety officials.

Looking ahead, Hoptown-Our Town has plans to broaden participation in the dialogues, conduct community surveys to find out how people feel about the criminal justice system, and develop recommendations that might help local agencies reduce the number of people of color in the penal system.

Learn more: Police-Community Relations  | Racial Equity

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