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After Atlanta shooting, law enforcement works to build trust with community

By Kim Leoffler
Published  May 5, 2023 11:43pm EDT
Atlanta Police Department
FOX 5 Atlanta

Community and police relations

Two days after the deadly shooting in Atlanta law enforcement personnel from around the country held a discussion about how to prevent violent crime in their communities. The discussion centered around community engagement and the importance of trust between citizens and law enforcement.

ATLANTA - Two days after the deadly shooting in Atlanta, law enforcement personnel from around the country held a discussion about how to prevent violent crime in their communities. The discussion centered around community engagement and the importance of trust between citizens and law enforcement. 

Officials say citizens played a crucial role in law enforcement's response after Wednesday's shooting.

"The reason we so quickly pushed out the video of the shooter is because we wanted everyone looking for that individual," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.

Schierbaum said numerous tips and calls came in both in Atlanta and Cobb County as police worked to find and apprehend Dion Patterson on Wednesday.

"We have a number of cameras in our camera network that were put in place through registering with connect Atlanta weeks and months ago that were critical to us being able to solve that case on Wednesday," Schierbaum explained.

And that community engagement was the focus of the discussion Friday night between both local and national law enforcement leaders. It's part of a new week-long conference on best practices for law enforcement to build trust with the citizens they serve.

"This allows us to find and define and create best practices the most proper way to go into communities and to engage them. Communities that we may not have historically been able to build bridges to and trust with, and we want to have those conversations and partnerships in place long before there's a moment of crisis in our communities," Schierbaum said.

The hope is that as law enforcement becomes more involved in their community, it will not only help with response, but also help to stop crimes before they occur.

"I think this is a much-needed conversation and I feel like we're in the right direction," Michelle Watts, Communications Supervisor with Emory Police Department, said.

"The only way we're able to navigate those troubled waters to get good tips from the community to honor our shelter in place requests is if we are trusted," Schierbaum added.

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