Event gives Beaufort community chance to see what is ‘behind the walls’ of the police department.
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The Beaufort Police Department opened their doors to the community on Saturday morning for the first time.
As part of their initiative to be more transparent and connect more with members of the community, the Beaufort Police Department held an open house where it gave a look “behind the curtain” to show people how things work.
“This is a chance for us to invite people who are curious about what happens behind the walls of the police department,” said Lt. Col. Stephenie Price, Deputy Chief and spokesperson for the Beaufort Police Department.
“Because really, it’s not just our police department, it’s their police department.”
The open house was held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, at the Beaufort Police Department off Boundary Street.
The event featured virtual de-escalation training demonstrations, crime scene investigation techniques, courtroom procedures, craft tables, crime and safety information, free hot dogs and drinks and their newly established canine unit.
Supportive community partners such as CAPA, Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department, Hopeful Horizons, Exchange Club of Beaufort and Wright Directions Family Services were all there giving out information about their organizations to attendees.
The event attracted around 50 people, which Police Chief Dale McDorman said was a great start for their first open house.
“It’s a start for our first event,” McDorman said. “I think it’s good.”
Chief McDorman said that transparency is so important for a police department because of one word, “Trust.”
“If you operate in secrecy, people will never trust you,” he said. “Obviously, there are certain things we can’t expose, but this humanizes the police officers and the department.”
McDorman said that, unfortunately, a lot of police departments prefer to operate under a “veil of secrecy,” but over the past several years police departments have seen a shift where they realized that they really cannot operate that way.
This shift is one of the reasons why the police department decided to hold their first open house along with other community-oriented events such as Chill with a Cop, Movies in the Park and Coffee with a Cop.
“The more the public knows, the more they trust,” McDorman said. “It opens a dialogue.”
The Beaufort Police Department hopes to make the event an annual one, which will give them the opportunity to grow the event and hopefully attract more and more community members each year.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
