Seguin PD Officer begins difficult conversation for law enforcement and the community it serves
(Seguin) — The first steps toward Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers were taken Monday night as Texas Lutheran University played host to the community event, Beyond Brutality: A Candid Conversation From Both Sides of the Badge.
Sharing in that candid conversation at TLU’s Jackson Auditorium was Seguin Police Officer Brandon Smith.
As an African American police officer for the last eight years in Seguin, Smith publicly opened up to the community and for the first time prompted its citizens to begin the difficult conversation on the often-complicated relationship between law enforcement and minorities.
“There is nothing like this anywhere. There isn’t an open dialogue with members of the community and police departments. They say that there is, but nobody ever has these types of conversations where you can talk to people and actually get to know exactly what they really think and who they are. I think that this can be a model for other departments, other cities where they can adopt something like this and then we can get this conversation going where people in the community can feel like they come to us and that we can be a part of the community as well — rather than just showing up to be the police, we can inject ourselves and be truly a part of the community as a whole,” said Smith.
Before arriving to Seguin, Smith experienced policing in much larger cities, like New Orleans.
Smith says he applauds how things were conducted in the Seguin Police Department even prior to the rise and tension stirred from the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis Minnesota back on May 25, 2020.
He says while other communities across the nation continue to debate the issue or avoid them altogether, he applauds the Seguin community for the formation of its Community Coalition – and that group’s efforts to work toward improving the relationships between local law enforcement and communities of color.
“It solidified my decision to make Seguin my home and to finish my career here because you don’t get this type of support anywhere else and I’ve been in other places and it’s night and day as far as how Seguin, the residents, the community is with the police and vice versa,” said Smith.
If there is one message that Smith would like to pass on to those of color, it is this……
“You don’t have to be afraid of the police. You don’t. You are not going to be a snitch for talking to us or anything like that. I mean, I’m black too. You can come and talk to us. You can come talk to me. I understood how it is before I was a police officer. I wasn’t always a cop, so I understand some of the stigma around talking to the police but that’s not the reality of the world around you. You can come and talk to us. You can come and hang out with us. We are regular people too and we want to get to know you,” said Smith.
Smith tells the Seguin Daily News that events like the one on Monday are only the beginning steps toward building that level of trust — a level that ensures the safety and protection of all residents.
“That nervousness I think spans other issues just because they don’t know how to interact with us, and I think that causes a lot of friction and so just getting the conversation going will hopefully maybe ease that nervousness where people can start to trust and then start to communicate. It’s trust. A lot of it is trust. The minority community feels as if they can’t trust the police and there has been some legit reasons as to why they may feel that way but as far as Seguin goes, that is not our reality here and that you can trust us. We don’t have those issues like you see in other areas in big cities and things like that so hopefully, people will start to address us and come and talk to us and that this will branch off into other areas,” said Smith.
Joining Smith on stage as the moderator was TLU graduate Rashad Tolbert.
Together, the men conducted their conversation and wrapped up the event by answering questions from TLU students and members of the public.
Community Coalition members say they were pleased with the success of the event and are already looking forward to planning more ways of continuing this dialogue with the Seguin community.
A link to view Monday’s intro video for the community event can be found on the Seguin PD and KWED Facebook pages.