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By Renee Summers
Telegram News Reporter 

Police Leadership Puts the Emphasis on Community in Ecorse

 

October 27, 2022

Interim Police Chief Jerry Flowers believes interacting with the residents of Ecorse is important to building trust within the community.

The Ecorse Police Department's Interim Police Chief Jerry Flowers knows a thing or two about the community he serves. Flowers grew up in River Rouge and graduated from River Rouge High School. His initial career choice was to be a fire fighter so following college, he tested and applied with the River Rouge Fire Department, however there were no job openings at that time. After waiting two years for a position to open, he tested with the police department which had five openings-and finished with the third highest score. "I joined the police department and it was like a fish taking to water, I enjoyed going to the police academy and learning all I could," he recalls. Relying on his deep Christian faith, Flowers believes the police department is God's purpose for him. He also believes that police work is more than a just career, rather it's a calling, much like entering the ministry or nursing professions.


Flowers retired from the River Rouge Police Department after 24 years of service. He then worked with the Washtenaw County Sheriff as a hospital security manager. He had plans for retiring once more but an opportunity presented itself with the Ecorse Police Department in the summer of 2021. "I felt I would like to come here and kind of give back to the community," he says. "When you're in River Rouge or Ecorse, it's all the same community, we know everybody, it's just Visger Road that separates us. I love challenges and I thought it would be a challenge to come here and try to share my expertise with the police officers here." Throughout his career, Flowers' training has included the areas of identifying human trafficking victims, active shooter, diversity, and workplace violence.


Flowers has seen work of policing change over the years and says the divide between communities and police officers has become so stark that it is up to individual communities to address it and restore a relationship between the two for the good of residents. He says the negative image police departments all over the country have portrayed does not help to build trust between residents and their police departments.

In an effort to promote a unified community, Flowers want residents to be aware that he has been attempting to institute a Neighborhood Watch Program in the city but has received little interest from residents. Since last summer, the program has been announced in the city's newsletter and Flowers says implementing such a program could go a long way in both solving and preventing crimes in Ecorse. "Having a Neighborhood Watch Program would help everybody to get to know everybody and then they'll feel comfortable reporting crime because the police will be hands on," he says. "The majority of these crimes that are committed around here, people know who are doing it, they just don't want to speak up because they don't trust the police. We're trying to rebuild that trust and let them know if they report something they can remain anonymous and let us do what we need to do. It's going to take the village to make the community safe, not just the police." Flowers urges Ecorse residents to get involved with the Neighborhood Watch program, adding that a member of the police department will be part of the neighborhood meetings as well to provide guidance and listen to residents' concerns.


The department has recently hired a school resource officer to provide for a police presence in the schools. Flowers welcomes interactions with residents and says if residents have concerns they can call him. "We just want to be more accessible for the community because that's what we're here for. I really believe in the term To Protect and Serve. We are servants of the community and now I'd like to push customer service to teach the guys that we are here to serve the customers who are citizens who pay taxes for our services for them, to try and keep them safe."

Contact the Ecorse Police Department at 313-381-0900 (ext. 7006 to reach the chief) or email Flowers at [email protected]. If you are interested in participating in the Neighborhood Watch Program, go to http://www.ecorsemi.gov and enter Newsletter in the search box at the top of the city's main page. In the newsletter you will find a link to volunteer and participate.

 

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