SOUTHAVEN, Miss.– More preachers and police are joining forces.
Earlier this week Memphis Police and pastors from the Raleigh and Frayser communities met, and now the city of Southaven is jumping on board.
The goal they said is to reach more people in the community.
They said pastors are the perfect shepherds.
“We know these people as friends, and we have an interaction with them but we want them to be more involved with our department,” said Southaven Police Chief Tom Long.
Long told WREG more than 30 pastors who filled the Southaven Police Department.
The one day program was called Clergy Academy.
“I think it’s really cool because one of the things that we want to do, and one of the things I know the other pastors want to do as well, is be influential in the community, not just in our faith-based area,” said Pastor Craig Wendel who attended the meeting.
Chief Long said each of these pastors that attended the program have hundreds if not thousands of people in their congregation which means they can reach out to more of the Southaven community.
“The pastors are always very good about relaying information from their churches or a particular concern their church may have whether it’s crime in the area, whether it’s traffic in the area,” said Long.
He said the clergy could also be a voice for the abused and neglected.
At Thursday’s meeting pastors learned the basics of the department but it was also a chance for them to get to know each other.
For Wendel, it was a good opportunity to prepare for the future.
“I’m looking forward to this also rolling into disaster relief possibilities where if something tragic happened that the clergy could be together under the umbrella of the Southaven Police Department,” he explained.
Police hope the program encourages other communities to follow their lead.
The pastors and Southaven police plan to meet again in a few months.
