ST. JOSEPH — The community effort launched Tuesday to raise $500,000 for the Benton Harbor Police Department went well over the 50 percent mark on the first day.
Whirlpool Corp. committed $250,000 to the effort and, with other donations, the fund reached $315,000, according to Martin Golob, president of the United Way of Southwestern Michigan. “With the generous gift from Whirlpool, the campaign is already off to a great start,” he said Tuesday afternoon.
The $500,000 is aimed at helping bridge the Benton Harbor Police Department’s budget shortfall as the city prepares a request for a $5 million federal grant. Both efforts are part of a program to make it possible for the department to hire more officers and upgrade equipment.
More than 50 community and business officials met Tuesday morning at the Priscilla U. Byrns Heritage Center in St. Joseph to launch the fund-raising effort. Golob and David Whitwam, Whirlpool chairman and chief executive officer, are co-leaders of the funding campaign.
Golob said he hopes to “get all the gifts secured by the middle of next week. The sooner we get the funding together, the sooner Chief (Sam) Harris can get out and get officers, build block clubs, and start building relationships.”
Harris is going after a $5 million grant from the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services program.
Golob said Harris told those at the breakfast meeting he hopes to divide Benton Harbor into four quadrants.
“Each quadrant will have a police officer devoted solely to community policing and working with neighborhood associations and block clubs,” Golob said. Those officers will concentrate on “building relationships between the community and the police, so the community can decide how they want to be policed.”
Golob said the community police concept is a proven one.
“This is not an experiment,” Golob said. “This is an application of science. We know that this works. … It lessens crime, builds communities, stabilizes communities, and promotes growth.”
COPS is part of the federal government’s Police Integrity Initiative, which aims to help meet emerging and changing law enforcement needs by assisting agencies in creating or strengthening local programs that build trust between police and their communities.
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, is leading the efforts to secure the COPS grant for Benton Harbor. Upton was at Tuesday’s meeting, Golob said.
Golob said while the funding campaigns “have been under way well before last June’s civil disturbances, that event heightened our awareness of the force’s needs and gave us an opportunity to impact all of our communities, not just Benton Harbor.”
Two nights of rioting hit the city in June. Hundreds of police officers from other agencies were brought in to control the situation, and the city gained nationwide notoriety.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting were Benton Harbor Mayor Wilce Cooke, Benton Harbor City Manager Dwight Mitchell, Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey, Berrien County Coordinator Mike Henry, and Berrien County commissioners Bret Witkowski, Debra Panozzo and Jeanette Leahey, according to a United Way press release.
From The Herald Palladium