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Students partner with local police to deliver food to community residents

Members of Liberty University’s Criminal Justice Club helped the Lynchburg Police Department deliver boxes of food to local residents. (Photos by Leah Seavers)

As part of a partnership with the Lynchburg Police Department, members of Liberty University’s Criminal Justice Club helped deliver boxes of donated food to Lynchburg residents at the James River Apartment Complex on Wednesday.

The effort was part of a new community outreach program at Liberty called SCOPE (Student Community Oriented Policing Experience), which was officially established at the beginning of the fall semester to give Liberty’s criminal justice students an opportunity to work with the Lynchburg Police Department’s Community Action Team (CAT).

“A lot of the students here want to go into law enforcement, so this gives them an inside look into what it actually takes, especially when it comes to community policing, which is really what is helping rebuild relationships between communities and police departments,” said Kristin Jones, a senior criminal justice student and officer in Liberty’s Criminal Justice Club.

Through SCOPE, about 30 students have partnered with CAT in its mission to facilitate community building and policing initiatives. In addition to Wednesday’s outreach, students have also assisted in a winter coat drive and distributed donated food to residents in the Hillcrest Apartment Complex.

The food comes from the Lynchburg branch of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which gives out supplemental food boxes to elderly citizens in low-income households.

On Wednesday, the students, accompanied by LPD officers, went door-to-door to deliver the boxes of food.

“The main part of this is to build community, and building community is all about building relationships with people,” said Officer Luther Rose. “That’s why it’s important to me that we have the SCOPE students here as well. When people see me interacting with people who are not law enforcement, they are more likely to interact, and it takes trust to do anything these days.”

Jones also said that by engaging with local residents and displaying the charitable side of police work, the students were not only able to build relationships with the community, but also saw the impact that such community engagement can bring.

SCOPE’s work will continue on Dec. 2, when the Lynchburg Police Department hosts a Super Saturday event, where students will go through LPD’s physical agility test, mock oral interviews, and basic police officer safety scenarios to learn what the typical hiring process involves at a police department.

SCOPE students look forward to continuing their partnership with CAT officers through more community and training events.

“We need their help, because sometimes we lack the manpower that we need,” Rose said. “But it also gives us a way to mold the students early and let them know that police are here to serve as well as protect, and these are some of the things you need to be able to do as an officer today.”

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