Winston Salem Police Foundation

Scotty and Hannah talk to Justin Gomez about the community involvement.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Carolina Cares Scotty Blaisdell withHannah Tyler, and as always, we're
excited to meet new folks and today'sa perfect example of that from the Winston
Salem Police Foundation. It's justin Gobaz. We were talking about your title.
It's immediate past president, so youcarried that responsibility for a little while and

(00:21):
now you've passed that along. Itsounds like, Yeah, thanks Scotty and
Hannah for having me on the showtoday. I really appreciate it and really
looking forward to talking to the communityabout the Winston salemd Police Foundation and some
of the good work we're doing.And yeah, I'm one of about seventeen
or eighteen board members on the boardof directors and it's an all volunteer board

(00:42):
and an organization right now. Andyeah, we're all about partnering with the
Winston's Island Police Department on a numberof initiatives and helping to kind of bridge
that area between the police department andthe community to bring the two together and
work on different initiatives we have.I was interested when we were chatting off

(01:03):
air that you don't have a lawenforcement background yourself, and that's the case
for a lot of the board members. Right, Yeah, you're exactly right.
The vast majority of our board membersare not past law enforcement officers or
don't have a law enforcement background perse. But there are various members of

(01:23):
the community, you know, allall walks of life and backgrounds from corporate
America backgrounds or I guess I shouldsay corporate try at backgrounds. Focus in
a little bit more. Two communityvolunteers to a couple of retired law enforcement
officers that are on the board.As a matter of fact, Chief Barry

(01:44):
Rowntree retire chief a few years ago. He's currently on the board as well.
So great mix and you know,just a great blend of people to
be able to connect within the communityand the police department and help get things
done since we don't have a policebackground. What drew you to the organization?
Yeah, great question, Hannah.So I guess probably going back to

(02:07):
when I was a kid, Iwas always kind of interested in law enforcement
and the police, and my lategrandfather he worked in law enforcement, so
I always kind of had that inthe back of my mind, and back
in twenty sixteen, this opportunity aroseto join the at that time a brand
new organization with the Winston Sale PoliceFoundation and join their board and just was

(02:30):
blessed to take advantage of that opportunityand dive in. And you're an app
state grad. We should throw thatout there. Absolutely go out proudly and
your wife as well, Is thatright? Indeed? Yes? So what
were you doing or what are youdoing professionally? Yeah? So my day
job, as I like to callit, I work in marketing with Atrium

(02:50):
Healthwake Forest Baptist and have been therea number of years. And of course
you know that organization is very prothe ployees being involved in the community and
helping out and volunteering. So thisis one of the ways, you know,
we can give back and work withthe police department on a regular basis
to help accomplish our goals in eachof our four main pillars. What are

(03:14):
those four main pillars? I amglad you asked him. So. Yeah.
So we've, like I said,been around since twenty sixteen and really
focus in strategically on a few mainideas to help keep us on track from
a fundraising perspective, and to helpkeep us on track for making sure we're
strategically allocating those funds in each ofthose four areas. So the first one

(03:38):
is community engagement and helping and comingalongside the police department with their community engagement
initiatives. They have a Community ResourcesUnit at the police Department, and so
those officers on that c are you. Their full time job is to engage
with the community and reach out anddo programming with children and you know,

(04:00):
uppear at special events and be apart of the community. And so we
help them in certain ways. Theyhave a really fun Paw Patrol program where
they dress up in all the pallpatrol mascots and go around to different schools
and do programming. So we wereable to purchase those mascot Apparently seven mascot

(04:23):
uniforms aren't as cheap as you wouldthink. Licensing issues sure, yeah,
So they got it all worked outand we're able to do things like that.
We have a really big community Halloweenevent that we partner with the police
department. It's kind of like atrunk or treat with really cool police vehicles.
So we partner with them and thatand just a number of other initiatives.
So that's community engagement. The secondone is really diving in with our

(04:46):
local youth in Winston Salem, andwe do that via two avenues. One
more on the educational side, andwe have Millennial scholar programs in a few
schools in the Winston Salem Forsyth Countydistrict, and that's really to help.
It's just formalizing mentoring and teaching leadershipand life skills to young two young men

(05:11):
and women who who might just needa little bit of an extra attention.
And we partner with a few schoolsdoing that, and we have law enforcement
officers come in and speak to thekids and you know, just talk about,
you know, what you need todo to be a good person and
a good students and how important educationis. And then we also have a
scholarship program where we disperse three differentscholarships each year. So that's on the

(05:36):
academic side. On the athletic side, we have what's called a Police Athletic
League and we've been able to growthat over the last few years. And
we have a youth flag football programthat we partner with the police department on
and a t ball program that wepartner with the local Parks and Recreation and

(05:57):
the local Salvation Army on in bringkids out to riper Bell Park and a
couple of years ago. Before acouple of years ago, the field there
Rupert Bell hadn't been played on intwenty five years for the purpose that it
was intended to, right, Sowe partnered with the city and we're able
to bring that back online and getkids plugged in and keeping them busy with

(06:17):
positive activities, especially during the summer. And that's been a really fruitful program
that we've had and it's grown thelast couple of years. So that's the
second one. Let me jump in. Yeah, this is Justin Gomez by
the way, from the Winston SalemPolice Foundation, and we're learning what that's

(06:38):
all about. And it sounds likea lot of it is kind of taking
the I don't know, the awkwardnessthat the community sometimes can feel when they're
having an interaction with a police officer, just to say, hey, these
are regular folks in our community whowant the same good for our community that
you do. Let's work together.You're exactly right, Scotty, And you

(06:58):
know, I think that's just wekeep working to to bring that message forth
into the community and to continue tobuild bridges in partnership with the leadership at
the police department in Winston Salem.So, you know, I think one
of the third the third pillar anda very important one is officer health and
wellness. So at the Winston sentthe Police Foundation, we obviously believe that

(07:19):
that's that is very important. Ourofficers need support. The professional staff at
the police department needs support. Uh. It's it's not the easiest job in
the world, especially the last fewyears, and just to really come alongside
them and say, hey, wesupport you. You know, are there
you know things that we can do, uh to improve your work life,

(07:42):
to improve your morale. So we'vepartnered and funded and helped supply and work
at officer appreciation events. We've we'vesupplied wellness and fitness equipment to a few
of the different buildings around the policedepartment around on the city. And it's
really cool and we're able to alsocome alongside, you know, on the

(08:07):
mental mental health side as well,and you know, fun some conferences or
retreats for officers just to go andget plugged in and get recharged with other
fellow officers around the region. Justa couple of examples justin I love how
you guys are shrinking this gap.Are you seeing kids just become more engaged
with the police side. How areyou trying to do that? Yeah,
good question, Hannah, And Ithink it's through you know, several of

(08:30):
our different programs that we have.I think a real key piece is the
Once Is On Police Foundation board reallyspends a lot of time with the Chief
of Police, Chief Pen and reallyworking alongside him and helping him with his
goals and priorities. He's amazingly focusedin building bridges in the community and being
out in the community. You know, I'll give you a good example.

(08:52):
We were at a local school inWinston Salem and it's a new school that
we're partnering with for them scholars programand Chief Pen was there, you know,
after quote unquote hour after hours,I guess, although with a police
officer, I guess there's never reallyafter hours. And we had this jacket
ceremony for these kids, these fourthand fifth graders, and as part of

(09:16):
the Millennial Scholars programming to help helpthem with understanding the importance of education and
having weekly sessions with these young menand focusing on milestones for education, for
social and emotional learning. And youknow, Chief Pin and those kids there
last night were high five in eachother we're taking pigs pictures were hugging.

(09:39):
Yeah, and you know I seethat all the time at different events where
we partner with the police department onwith the Police Athletic League. A lot
of the coaches are police officers,so on their own time, they're volunteering
as coaches for the t ball programor the flag football program. So they're
spending time on a weekly basis withthese kids and they developed these relationships so

(10:01):
when they see the officer out inthe community, they're like, Hey,
that's my friend, that's officer sellinside. You know, he's my coach
or he's my friend's coach. SoI think just things like that. What
is the fourth pillar, right,I didn't mean, we didn't mean to
cut you off, but I wantto make sure we cover that as Yeah.
Yeah, So that's really it's areally interesting pillar and evolving it specialized
technology and training and you know,each city has a budget for their public

(10:26):
safety, right and it covers yourbasic items that it should be covering for
public safety, but most all citiesalso have gaps with what the police department
can do, what law enforcement cando if they had the best equipment and
the best training versus what's in thecity budget. So sometimes we come alongside
them and help fill that gap.I think we have in the past helped

(10:48):
them purchase a couple of drones thatare have multiple capabilities where they can help
find missing persons. They have infraredtechnology, and that happened recently in a
case I remember hearing about. Yeah, Yeah, And then you know,
another example is really interesting. Youknow, a lot of departments now have
some sort of Internet crimes against Children'sdivision, and we see on the national

(11:11):
news sometimes, you know, reallysad stories around children and the Internet and
getting into trouble or being taken oryou know, negative illegal images being downloaded
or transferred on the Internet, andwe're able to purchase the specialized technology for
that EYEKAC division that really helps themwhen they arrest alleged perpetrators for illegally downloading

(11:41):
content, you know, child pornographycontent. It really helps with the conviction
rate because you're able to hone inand really prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
this was happening with that certain computer. So that's just a couple of examples.
While on that front, all thefour pillars were really greatful with the
community because they come alongside us justin a few short years and have supported

(12:03):
us a lot for each of thefour pillars, and you know, we're
able to kind of grow our programsyear of a year and continue to have
an impact with the police department andthe community justin I do want to touch
on it. Seems it was justa few years ago now Winston Salem had
a very different reputation than it doestoday. How have you guys teamed up

(12:24):
with the police officers to help makeit the city it is now. I
see on your website that you're actuallyworking with them with providing technology for gun
violence production. Yeah, so thatis a great question. I think one
thing that's come online specifically in WinstonSalem but a lot of other cities the
last few years is the Real TimeCrime Center. So that is an amazing

(12:46):
collection of data and technology at thepolice department. We just brought the Real
Time Crime Center online in Winston Salemrecently, within the last twelve or eighteen
months, and it looks like,you know, if you kind of see
some of the TV shows, likea large CompStat room where it's got multiple

(13:07):
TVs on the wall and there's differentdata and cameras being fed into the real
time Crime Center. So we've helpedsupport the real time Crime center, specifically
with helping connect some of the localbusiness camera systems to the real time Crime
Center with the business their permission ofcourse, and really bringing in advanced license

(13:28):
plate readers. We've helped support themin that way, so really helping tie
additional technology together into the real timecrime Center and the police officers in the
real time crime Center when a violentcrime occurs, they're there like real time,
right, So with the different camerascoming in or just different pieces of

(13:50):
intelligence coming in from different divisions,they're able to assemble all of that technology
and intelligence in one place. Youknow, we've heard plenty of examples detectives
that would have had to be knockingon doors for a week, two weeks,
they're able to get that same amountof information in twenty minutes wow,

(14:13):
and be able to make arrests intwenty or thirty minutes instead of two or
three weeks later. So that obviouslyhelps you know, the probability that the
arrest is going to be made.So that the Real time Crime Center is
a real great investment, and it'syou know, not just the police foundation
that's invested in it, but plentyof other entities have and the Police Department
is able to help make Winston salein the safer place because they're using that

(14:37):
and growing the real time crime center. How can we help? I'm glad,
yes, sir, so yes.We are a nonprofit organization and we're
able to facilitate all the programs I'vetalked about and grow the programs because of
support we have. And you knowthat comes in three three ways. Mainly,
Number one is individual support, Soplenty of individuals donations and the easiest

(15:01):
way to do that is just togo to w Spolicefoundation dot org WS Police
Foundation dot org and you'll see adonate button and you click on that and
it's easy PC one two three.The second one is corporate support. So
we've had plenty of businesses and corporationsin the Winston Salem for scythe county area

(15:22):
really come alongside us and say,you know what, Winston Salem. They
live here, they work here,they want Winston Salem to be as safe
as possible, and they see thePolice Foundation in Winston as a as a
viable way to donate and invest tohelp make our community as safe as possible,
and that helps you know from fromrecruiting and workforce retention. You know

(15:43):
their their their employees want to livein a safe city. Uh. And
the third one is with foundations.So we've been fortunate to partner with some
some local foundations that have provided financialsupport over the last few years. So
yeah, Winston's excuse me, wS Police Foundation dot org is the easiest
way to donate. We also havea PO box if you want to snail

(16:04):
mail a check to us. Thatinformation is on the website as well.
Ok, you'll gladly take the snailmail, right, I will, we
will. I'll go over to thePO box and check it and jump up
and down in the air. Well. We've learned a lot, and it
sounds like if you want to helpout not just the police force, but
also the community because you're doing thesecommunity impact things, You're playing sports with

(16:27):
them, You're getting people who mightnot have something to do, especially kids,
and giving them an activity to staybusy and build these relationships as well.
So a lot of good being doneby the Winston Salem Police Foundation.
That is justin Gomez. I wantto ask you for the website one last
time. Thank you sir, it'sWspolicefoundation dot org, org org Justin thanks

(16:52):
for being here on Carolina Cares.Thank you so much, Scotty and Hannah.
This is just a really really gratefulfor the opportunity to spend time with
you and share our story.