By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After being announced as the new St. Joseph police Chief last month Paul Luster has officially begun his tenure as the chief of police this week.
Luster says a goal of his in this new position is to get the community involved in helping discover the issues affecting them.
An immediate short-term goal for Luster is to hold listening sessions both internally and externally to learn about these issues.
"Obviously it's always going to be a goal to make St. Joe safer, so when I start getting that input, I think there will be a lot more clarity to that plan," Luster tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "I don't want it to be the Paul Luster plan, I want it to be a plan that the community has input on, that this department has input on, and we can work together collaboratively to make St. Joe safer."
Luster says listening sessions will be held over time, both formal and informal, that members of the community should watch for announcements of.
Luster hopes to learn more about the issues that are happening in the city from residents as his time in St. Joseph goes on.
Luster says it can be hard to build relationships with the community when there is a slight disconnect between residents and the police.
"But I think as long as we are transparent as an organization, as long as we're honest as an organization, as long as I'm accessible as a leader of this agency, I think that's what helps build those relationships," Luster says. "Listening to them, taking their input, and working really creatively together to solve issues."
Luster also hopes to modernize the St. Joseph Police Department to help address the issues affecting the community.
Luster says modernizing policing simply means to use the technology and data at their fingertips to address problems.
"For a lot of times, the police department would go into a neighborhood and the police department would tell the community what the problem was and how we're going to fix it, and that's not right," Luster explains. "We need to go in there, we need to listen to what they say the problems are and ask them how we can help them."
Luster says after getting that information is when the department goes back to use their technology and data
"Where are our problem locations, who are our problem people, what are our pattern crimes, and use that data so we can really I call it fish with a spear instead of a net," Luster says.
Luster says this method will help police address the issues the public believes are important rather than what the police says is important.