{"id":21097,"date":"2017-06-15T09:18:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T13:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=21097"},"modified":"2017-06-16T08:45:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T12:45:36","slug":"coatesville-pd-times-image-honored-by-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=21097","title":{"rendered":"Coatesville PD, Times’ image honored by DOJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viral shot of officer and kids in splash pad wins COPS June photo award<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

COATESVILLE \u2014 It was a hot summer day in the city \u2014 and arguably around America \u2014 as tensions between police and urban citizens seemed to be boiling over, but the temperature took a sudden and welcome drop locally when a city officer, in full uniform, took a couple of city kids along and went through the city\u2019s new Splash Pad<\/a>, last July.<\/span><\/p>\n

The image of a city police officer \u2014 who has asked to remain anonymous \u2014 and two city children went viral and made its way around the world as a symbol of community policing at its best \u2014 an image shot by Times<\/em>\u2019 News Editor Lauren Parker, as she covered the event for us. That image and the city police\u2019s efforts on community policing have been honored by the U.S. Justice Department\u2019s Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) as the June 2017 winner of the Community Policing in Action Photo Contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the photo captures just one moment, policing in Coatesville has changed dramatically since the hiring of former State Police Major Jack Laufer as chief. A formerly dysfunctional and, at times, scandal plagued department has become a true force for good in the community, reaching out and connecting with the citizens they serve. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of unique in a way\u2014we have an advantage in that we\u2019re just under two square miles,\u201d Laufer said in the statement issued on the award. \u201cWe want to provide good quality policing. We use more of a holistic approach, as opposed to having one officer assigned as the CSO [community service officer]. We encourage \u2018park and walks\u2019 where officers get out of their cars and get into the community\u2014whether it\u2019s playing basketball or checking on the local businesses. We encourage that and we\u2019ve been pretty successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The officer just literally jumped in, and Parker was there to capture the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when police were (and still are) under attack, simply for doing their jobs, I posted this photo to show who our police are – human beings just like us – with families and friends who hope and pray they come home from work everyday,\u201d Parker said this week, after learning of the award.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, later that day, another city police officer would be attacked without provocation<\/a> \u2014 leading to the injury of another officer, who responded to assist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without question, the Coatesville Police Department continues to face challenges. After decades of fiscal mismanagement by the City Council, budgets have been slashed and manpower is at a low ebb, in a city where seven homicides took place in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even with those challenges, there is a clear perception in the community that things are better, that the police department is there to make Coatesville not just a safer place, but a better community, Parker noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a reporter and a member of the community, I have always been impressed by the Coatesville Police Department\u2019s presence within the community. Nights, weekends or weekdays, officers almost always attend events in the city,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the officer in the photo asked a group of children who had gathered around him, \u2018Who wants to run through the splash pad with me? I grabbed my camera and snapped the photo. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this picture conveyed that we can be a community with our police, if we simply let them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viral shot of officer and kids in splash pad wins COPS June photo award By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times COATESVILLE \u2014 It was a hot summer day in the city \u2014 and arguably around America \u2014 as tensions between police and urban citizens seemed to be boiling over, but the temperature took a sudden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9166,986,9167,9165,6269,4626],"class_list":["post-21097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-award-winning-photo","tag-coatesville-police","tag-cops","tag-cops-program","tag-featured","tag-u-s-justice-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21140,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21097\/revisions\/21140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}