Video: Festival Seeks To Bridge Gap Between Police And The Public

TUPELO, Miss.  (WCBI) – Most days, people’s perception of law enforcement is gained through personal interaction or seeing officers make traffic stops and work wrecks.

But the main goal of the Communities Forward Festival is to allow the public to see police officers in a different light.

“We come down a level or two and just kind of breathe a little bit and enjoy ourselves and it gives the community a chance to see us having fun,” said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre.

The 12th annual free festival will be September 23rd. It will begin with a parade at at CC Augustus Pool.
Other activities are also planned, including a concert by Grammy Award winner Bobby Rush.

That show will be at Gum Tree Park on Front Street . Ward Four Councilwoman Nettie Davis started the event to build a positive relationship between residents and officers.

“Someone has to do the job of protecting us and I think we have an excellent police department to do that, and it’s going to even build up more positive images as we continue to have this festival,” Councilwoman Davis said.

Relations with Tupelo police were strained after the officer involved shooting of Ronnie Shumpert in June of 2016.
Mayor Jason Shelton believes the festival, and other Community Oriented Policing initiatives are helping.

“What we’ve done over the last year and a half is really try to promote that because what we learned last summer is that a perceived problem is a real problem, and if we’re doing events that people don’t know about then we’re not doing as good of a job as we need to do,” Mayor Shelton said.

The recently covered basketball courts at Gum Tree Park will be dedicated during the festival.
Davis believes the $260,000 improvement shows the city is committed to improving the area.

For a complete lineup of events at the “Communities Forward Festival” go to facebook.com/CommunitiesForwardFestival/