A paintbrush was supposed to change a house.
No one could have known that it would also change a relationship.
A partnership between the Riviera Beach Police Department and the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County began as a simple neighborhood improvement project. Yet, it quickly became a connection between police officers and Ms. Deloris Roundtree, a resident who needed more than a freshly painted home. She needed to know that officers saw her, cared about her, and would continue to check on her long after the paint dried.
As officers and Solid Waste Authority staff worked, the house began to transform. Ms. Roundtree saw more than fresh paint. She saw people who had taken the time to come to her home, of 53 years, and make a difference.
For the officers, the work did not end when the paintbrushes were put away. Something was still missing. The residence, in the Monroe Heights neighborhood, had no address numbers. It would have been easy to overlook such a small detail. The home looked better, but the job was not finished. The officers bought new address numbers and returned to install them. It was a small gesture, but small gestures often carry the greatest meaning.
Ms. Roundtree noticed.
What happened afterward, however, was the part no one could have painted into the original plan. A relationship began to form. Officers continued to check in on Ms. Roundtree to make sure she was doing well. The visits became familiar and reassuring. Officers were no longer just uniformed figures who had come to her neighborhood for a project. They had become people she knew, people she could talk to, and people she looked forward to seeing. The paint changed the appearance of the home, but the relationship changed the experience of living in it.
Ms. Roundtree now looks forward to seeing officers. If too much time passes between visits, she reminds them that they cannot stay away so long. You can count how many homes were painted. You can track how many community projects were completed. You can measure calls for service and response times. But, it is far more difficult to measure what happens when a senior citizen sees a police officer and feels comfort instead of distance. It is harder to measure the value of an officer taking a few minutes to ask, “How are you doing?”
Public safety is not built only during emergencies. It is built when residents have an opportunity to know the people behind the badge. It is built when officers understand that sometimes the best way to serve a community is simply to be present.
Young people are watching how officers enter their neighborhoods, how they speak to their parents and grandparents and whether they are only there to enforce rules or serve, listen, and help. Community policing shapes tomorrow’s relationship between young people and law enforcement. A young person who sees an officer helping an elderly neighbor may remember that image differently than an officer seen only at a traffic stop, an arrest, or an emergency.
Community policing is not about what happens when the police are called. It is about what happens when they simply show up, lend a hand, and become part of the community they serve.
Cherrise Knight is a Riviera Beach Police Department office who's served three years in the Community Services Division. She holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration. She has launched the department’s Special Needs Registry Program, an initiative designed to support and protect some of the community’s most vulnerable residents.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How a paintbrush and a lot of caring aids community policing | Opinion
