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By: Timothy Kays
Symbiosis. According to Merriam-Webster, symbiosis has two possible definitions. First, it can mean, “The living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms.”
The other definition is simply, “A cooperative relationship.” In the midst of a nation embroiled in societal unrest, the Village of Montpelier has a symbiotic relationship with its police force…fully employing both definitions.
That aforementioned social unrest has left its mark everywhere across the country, including Montpelier. “I think it always has some impact,” said Montpelier Chief of Police Dan McGee. You know, we’ve had such a good relationship with our community that we have not had as maybe a difficult time as maybe some of the urban areas do.”
“But there’s always lingering things, and people do say things or do things and you know, that is something that impacts us. Speaking for myself, it’s an irritant. I don’t understand a lot of it, but it doesn’t deter me. I didn’t sign up understanding that everybody was going to be happy and nice, and singing Kumbaya all the time. It doesn’t deter me.”
Chief McGee cannot say enough about his community, and the same can be said vice versa. If you were passing by the Montpelier Police Department on the afternoon of July 21, 2016, you might have wondered why a large group of people were gathered in a circle in the Empire Street parking lot of the MPD, and what was that smaller group in the middle of the circle.
The large circle was made up of Montpelier citizens that had gathered together to publically pray for their police department. The people in the middle? That was Chief McGee, huddled together with Sergeant Jennifer Hern, Officers Devin Harter and other MPD officers. This was as close of a display of symbiosis that you could get.
“You know, we can’t feel more blessed than we do with the community that we have,” said Chief McGee. “I think is the central focus of our agency is to have a positive influence on our community, and then that gets mirrored right back to us. Our community has a positive impact on us, and the community members are the reason #1 that we suit up every single day, knowing that we have positive impact on them. I think it’s a two way street.”
“We will always have rough waters I guess, but we understand that the majority of the people in our community that we serve all excellent, good people who appreciate what we do. They tell us, they show us, and those people are the reasons that every single day we put the uniform on and we come to work.”
When the disciples of Christ were shooing kids away, Christ said, “Suffer the children to come to Me, because of such is the Kingdom of God.” The relationship that the kids of Montpelier have with their local police department seems to go against every modern social directive in the book.
Chief McGee said emphatically, “That could be maybe the most positive thing that we can do as a group of officers, is to ensure that we have a positive relations with our youth, and to have a relationship with them not only as police officers, but just leaders and just general citizens. We understand that someday these young minds are going to grow up to be adult minds who will then act within the community.”
“And we feel that having that positive relationship with them now is only going to be beneficial down the road, because we know that these young minds will become the leaders of our community, the hands and the feet going out and doing the projects, doing the charity, and framing the laws. We love it here. We love the interaction we have with our youth; it is an essential thing for us. I don’t know anyone here who has ever walked away with angry face after interacting with a kid, you know, and we just love the events that we do.”
“We are very appreciative of our public,” McGee added. “We understand that the decisions and things that we have to do don’t always make everyone happy, but we want our public to know that we do consider all of the things that we have to do.”
“We consider them to be important enough to make hard decisions, and it’s for the safety and well being of our community. We want them to know that we always have their safety and well being first, and that we’ve just appreciated the outpouring of love that we get from them.”
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com