PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria says something he did last year with success will be done again this year.
Every Thursday starting this week, the Chief will lead his officers and other local agencies in a “Walk and Talk” initiative going door to door in a number of neighborhoods, starting with the Vinton Highlands area.
“It is not a publicity stunt,” Echevarria told WMBD’s “The Craig Collins Show.” “Here we are again doing it. There’s a lot of other things the police can do. I think this is very important. We’ll continue to do this while I’m the Chief of Police here.”
Echevarria says the door-to-door talks last year proved successful, and hopefully made members of the public feel more comfortable with officers in their neighborhoods.
Echevarria says not only have lines of communication between police and residents opened up, they’ve gone beyond what he thought might happen.
“We were able to help people get work,” said Echevarria. “We were able to drop off some groceries to some families. We were able to even get furniture for some families that we met in this. And, that wasn’t something that I have required the officers of the Peoria Police Department to do.”
Echevarria says in many cases, those officers did that on their own.
Police will be armed with information about various community services residents might need when they go out.
The full list of dates and locations for “Walk and Talk” is below.
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