Montgomery Police Chief Ernest Finley Getting Involved in Community
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Montgomery Police Chief Ernest Finley has been on the job since January and he’s making changes to the way things are done at the police department. Today he invited Alabama News Network to tag along to check out some initiatives he’s implementing.
Ernest Finley came from Atlanta, where he served with their police department for 28 years. He’s still assessing the Montgomery Police Department’s strengths and weaknesses but he says he’s learned a lot in his short three months.
Montgomery Police Chief Ernest Finley says he’s bringing community-oriented policing to Montgomery.
“I’ve been doing community policing for about 20-something years and this is how I got my strength.”
Finley says he believes it’s important that his officers know the communities they’re working in.
“The challenge is to make sure that we’re bringing crime down and that we make a connectivity to these communities throughout the city.”
And that’s why Finley makes his men and women walk through some of Montgomery’s toughest neighborhoods. Wednesday afternoon, they visited Regency Park.
About 50 officers took to the streets to meet those who live in the neighborhood. Finley says it’s one of many new initiatives.
“We have a couple initiatives out here where we concentrate on particular districts, particular areas of concern.”
The goal is to reduce crime in those areas on concern while building relationships with the people who live there. And he says he’d like more officers on staff to help do that.
“The more the merrier but within budget, within the scheme of things,” he says. “We are really maximizing what we’ve got and so we are making sure the resources that we have, all these communities will get some love, will get some attention.”
And in light of tensions between police and community members across the country, Finley says he’s working to make sure that doesn’t happen in Montgomery.
“Diversity is key. The police department should reflect the diversity of the city, which it does. And the other thing is training, that training aspect of how do we engage, how do we talk to the community.”
Regency Park was not the first neighborhood Finely and Montgomery police officers have walked through. They have been doing these walks for weeks in different areas of town. So you may see them coming by your house sometime soon.
