APD Chief invites community to discuss issues

Arlington Police Chief Jonathan Ventura is inviting community members to begin conversations with him as part of a new program this month.

The first ‘Arlington Walk and Talk’ will be held June 9, at 9 a.m., and begin at the Legion Park gazebo.

Chief Ventura will walk with residents and answer their questions in an informal atmosphere.

It is scheduled to continue every Wednesday in various parts of the town.

“The Walk and Talk is really about a continuation of the program that we had for years pre-COVID, Conversations with Cops,” said Ventura.

He said that was an important program.

“We had hundreds of meetings over the years to build positive relationships between the community and the police,” he said.

‘Conversations with Cops’ was a good program for people to connect with police officers, he said, but had to be paused because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I had expressed some of those frustrations that we didn’t really have the opportunity to talk with the community anymore,” said Ventura. “So we brainstormed with some community leaders about how we could still get out there and get that same level of connection."

Holding those conversations outside was possible to do safely now and Ventura hoped to bring back some form of community connection.

“I wish we would have come up with a replacement for the program sooner,” he said.

Like the ‘Conversations with Cops’ program, Ventura said he is not going to come to the event with an agenda of topics to talk about, but hopes to be able to answer questions from residents.

“We’re having unscripted dialogue that is based around questions form the community members,” said Ventura.

In the previous program, police officers from all different levels talked with the community, but the ‘Arlington Walk and Talk’ is primarily being held with Ventura.

“It’s a little different with myself leading the charge,” he said. Ventura added he hoped that bringing the police chief out would attract more interest to help kickstart the program.

There may also be different individuals such as the mayor, city council members or local community leaders that are also at the event.

“From time to time we can invite special guests as well, so it’s not just talking just to me all the time,” said Ventura.

He hopes that people come out to talk about the issues that concern them.

“I’ve already gotten emails from community members asking about speeding cars in their neighborhood or graffiti,” he said.

Local residents can request that the ‘Arlington Walk and Talk’ comes to their neighborhood by emailing [email protected].