Hundreds at public safety forum

Police officers, safety experts discuss crime prevention, more at conference.

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By Jill Kelley, Staff Writer 9:15 PM Saturday, May 21, 2011

RIVERSIDE — Police officers and safety education experts from 25 jurisdictions and 10 counties joined forces Saturday for the first Miami Valley Community Problem Oriented Policing conference.

The 400 people at the daylong event at Stebbins High School took courses in crime prevention, personal safety, animal services, college campus safety, gun violence, drug and gang awareness, child abuse and neglect, school bullying and more.

“Effective public safety is a healthy outgrowth of police and citizens working together,” said Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl, who added that public safety is a civic duty. “Despite all the improvements in investigative technologies and forensics, the most important factor in an investigation is the witness.”

The keynote speaker was Dayton native Dr. James Pawelski, a scholar in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

He discussed similarities between positive psychology and community problem-oriented policing, saying both acknowledged the need to prevent crime and for create positive growth.

“If all we do is focus on punishment, we may miss the problem,” he said. “If we just focus on prevention, we may miss the opportunity.”

Pawelski said he was impressed with the number of people in attendance on a sunny Saturday morning.

“The chief (Biehl) was commenting that there seems to be a lot more friendliness and neighborliness in Dayton as compared to other cities,” Pawelski said. “That is really a strength. We wouldn’t be able to have this kind of event in every city.”

Karen and April Reeder, residents of north Dayton, said they were interested in “almost everything” offered at the conference.

“We’re just tired of all the crap that’s going on,” Karen Reeder said.

There also was a police cruiser display with more than 40 vehicles, a K-9 demonstration and a Taser demonstration at the event, which was sponsored by the Miami Valley Crime Prevention Association.

For more information, visit www.mvcpop.com.

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