Lunch with Community Affairs officers

A regular network lunch with the Freeport Chamber of Commerce provided a look into the purpose and outreach of the Community Affairs Division.

 Community Affairs is a division of the Freeport Police Department.

Officer Donnetta Cumberbatch and Detective Shawn Randall, two officers in Community Affairs, presented a talk and answered questions from about 20 Chamber members.

 Cumberbatch, who is just completing 17 years with the FPD, spoke first. She explained how Community Affairs came into being and why she was selected for it.

 “I became a Community Affairs officer about a year and half ago,” Cumberbatch said. “I was supposed to start training to become a school resource officer, but March of 2020 was when things got crazy because of Covid, so that ended the training. A few months later is when all hell broke loose with the unrest and the protests over the killing of George Floyd, which prompted a change of legislation and police reform became forefront.”

 One component of Freeport’s reform effort was to create the three-person Community Affairs Division. Officers Bobby Ford, Samantha Sepulveda, and Cumberbatch were the first appointees. When Ford went to a different division, Randall joined.

“This division allows me the opportunity to have a more personable response to the community,” Cumberbatch said, adding that for certain types of police response, she accompanies the regular police and spends extra time with the persons involved, as required.

“This job teaches a lot,” she said. “This job is the best job in the world. I’m a testament. I’m safe, I haven’t had any issues at this time, thankfully.”

A year and a half into its existence, Community Affairs has branched out in several directions to gain community trust and organize regular contacts with village residents. The event last August 21, “Bridging the Gap” Field Day, was a collaboration of Community Affairs with the Freeport Chamber of Commerce, with surrounding organizations like Northwell Health joining in.

 “We have involvement with the Youth & Police Initiative,” said Cumberbatch, “which is the police involving the youth, meeting once a month. Sergeant Poppy of the First Precinct is the spearhead of that. Right now we have 10 youths.” The young folks may ask any questions they wish, on any issue at all, and are encouraged to bring a friend next time.

Periodically, Community Affairs also holds a meeting with the Nassau County District Attorney’s office and the Freeport Advisory Committee, which is composed of Freeport residents. The DA representatives listen to citizen concerns and helps develop responses.

 Another issue to which Community Affairs attends has been homelessness.

 “We’ve been able to get 26 individuals out of the wooded areas of Freeport and into a homeless outreach program that houses these individuals for a year in a hotel. We’ve provided food, clothing, transportation,” Cumberbatch said, and then went on to explain the Community Affairs efforts to keep scam artists from bilking elderly residents out of their money.

Perhaps the oddest of the matters that fall into the Community Affairs lap is the recent rash of stealing catalytic converters from the underbellies of cars.

 “Wouldn’t that be a noisy crime, cutting the converter off with a saw?” queried Ivan Sayles, owner of Rachel’s Bar and Grille. “I would think it would wake the neighborhood.”

 Cumberbatch and Randall explained that, using an electric saws-all, expert thieves can remove the converter in about 30 seconds, motivated by the value of the precious metals required in its manufacture. Community Affairs plans to engage an auto expert to help the public understand and prevent the thefts.

 From there, the conversation went to other outreach efforts, such as delivering meals personally to each apartment in Freeport’s three main senior complexes, hiring an intern to help set up engagement through social media, and starting plans for the use of Cow Meadow Park, which Freeport now owns.

 Randall spoke of community contact efforts on the part of the Freeport police that predate the Community Affairs Division by decades, such as Adopt-a-Cop, Freeport Toys for Tots, and interactive events with teens to expose them to the ways in which police benefit their locale.

“I’ve been in this for 32 years,” Randall said, “and we don’t see the problems that other communities have, whether it’s because we have a residency law and a lot of us have grown up here, moved here – some people have moved here specifically for this job. If you want to make a change, if you want to be a young person and make a change in this world, become a police officer. It’s not only about making arrests and stuff like that. We love our community.”