DEARBORN, Michigan – The Department of Homeland Security hosted a National Summit on Empowering Communities to Prevent Violent Extremism at their Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia from Aug. 13 – 14.
A joint initiative of FLETC, the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the event had a goal of advancing interdisciplinary efforts to implement effective community-based countering violent extremism intervention strategies, and create a community of interest that will continually improve upon those efforts.
City of Dearborn community leaders Chief of Police Ronald Haddad, Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston and Imam Radwan Mardini of the American Muslim Center, along with over 50 other representatives from the federal, state, local, international, and non-governmental sectors, were invited to participate in this very important National Summit.
FLETC organizes basic and advanced law enforcement training for over 90 federal agencies and for several thousands of state, local, tribal, and international law enforcement officers and agents.
The Summit also hosted international representatives from Canada and Australia, and national representatives from Minnesota; Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; and Montgomery County, Virginia. Each group gave presentations on their city that included features, statistics and forms of policing.
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Chief Haddad, Superintendent Whiston and Imam Mardini gave a presentation about the strengths, challenges faced, and successes of the Dearborn community. Some topics covered were: population, family activities, national attractions, and the over 50 academic institutions, with the notation that the Dearborn Public School District is the third largest in the state of Michigan with 19,500 students.
Also presented was information on the Police Department: full- time and part-time officers, SWAT Team, K-9 Units, Bomb Squad, Crime Lab, and more. Also noted is the Chief Haddad focused on the success of efforts in countering violent extremism on a national and local level, noting the assistance provided by the Dearborn Public Schools, faith-based organizations, and the Michigan Association of Police Chiefs.
The Dearborn community leaders ended their presentation by highlighting the city’s accomplishment of ranking eighth as one of the “best cities to live in Michigan.” According to the study, the odds of being a victim of a violent crime are 1 in 302; the average commute time is less than 22 minutes and the average income is $46,972.
The City of Dearborn is committed to empowering local partners and engaging the broader community to keep citizens safe. Superintendent Whiston stated “having Police Officers in our schools has been of great assistance eliminating problems and the Police Officers are great role models for our students.”
Imam Mardini stated “The Dearborn Police Department has made it their mission to know the entire community, which is why they have been so successful in solving community problems.”
In line with this commitment, Chief Haddad will also be attending an “Inter-Faith Leadership Summit” at Rutgers State University in New Jersey on September 4, 2014 to discuss “targeted violence against worldwide communities of faith” with other community leaders to develop actionable plans for the future.
Chief Haddad stated “Community engagement is the key to crime prevention, problem solving, and most importantly constructive dialog with stakeholders.”
Cease with pandering to sensitivity classes and teach U.S. constitution class!
One school of thought would be when US citizens start to insert their representatives in congress to pass a bill to the president to sign as Law. That very person who gets a licenses or renews most take a U.S. constitution class!