WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — On Thursday, about a dozen law enforcement officers from the Warner Robins Police Department held a town hall meeting at Green Acres Baptist Church.
It's the second one they've held this year under a program started by new Police Chief Wayne Fisher.
Captain John Clay said it's part of a proactive approach they're taking to policing.
"What we're trying to do is get out and meet people and give them the opportunity to ask questions of us, just about how we do things on a general day-to-day basis," Clay said.
He said these meetings are an important way to bridge the conversation about crime between residents and law enforcement.
"We're looking to see what the concerns are of the community. People can come in, if they have a specific concern that we're not aware of, a problem that exists somewhere," Clay said.
And people did just that. They asked about things like getting a roundabout in their neighborhood, what police are doing about the city's homeless and a lack of patrolling in their neighborhood.
"It's very important to hear from them but to also allow them to hear from us so that we can come together to try to correct problems together," Senior Pastor Shaun Watson said.
He said town hall meetings can open up the conversation about how churches can help law enforcement bring down crime.
"There's always problems in the backgrounds of people that pushes people towards a crime. Or a bad decision and so I think as a church, not only Green Acres, but as a church as a whole, if we can lean into help people before they make those bad decisions," Watson said.
Clay said this year they've put more of a focus on crime prevention because they were too short-staffed during the COVID-19 pandemic to do that then.
"We didn't have time to send guys out and try to find stuff. They were reacting to not just crime, but general calls for service," Clay said.
With more manpower this year, they hope more efforts like their town hall meetings will continue making a difference.
Clay said they've split Warner Robins into four quadrants for the town hall meetings. They want to make sure they can meet with individual parts of town about their individual problems. He said their next meeting will be in September at Second Baptist Church.