“We wanted to find a way to be able to get residents and citizens into the police department and fire department to learn more about it.”
Emily Morgenstern is the Police Community Coordinator for the Muskegon Police Department. She says their new workshop is intended to provide citizens with a better understanding of the functions of law enforcement and the importance of public safety.
“We are going to be having presentations that cover use of force, de-escalation tactics, as well as a presentation from our mental health team.”
Other topics will include traffic stop protocol and fire extinguishing.
“We will have residents actually go through different scenarios and really put them in the shoes of the officers and firefighters.”
Morgenstern says the workshop is all about department transparency. It also aims to dispel misconceptions and increase positive communications between citizens and police.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into public safety behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t see, so we want to be able to just get people more knowledgeable about the profession.”
The workshop runs from 8 am to 4 pm on March 8th at Muskegon City Hall. You must be at least 18-years-old to participate and space is limited. You can sign up here.
