The Community Police Collaborative (CPC) committee was formally established to advise the Township of South Orange Village Board of Trustees regarding its oversight of the Village Police Department, particularly with respect to its interactions with Village residents and their children; Village officials, employees, and educators; local non-resident workers and other visitors, Seton Hall University students, and police officers, etc., and to facilitate and encourage further Constituent outreach.  The overall goals for the committee are as follows:

• Sharing respective points of view and feedback;
• Developing agreed-upon best practices; 
• Increasing awareness of and reducing explicit and implicit bias;
• Creation of programs and activities to foster engagement among Constituents; and
• How it might serve as contextual ambassadors to / sharing CPC knowledge with the broader South Orange community.

The CPC holds monthly meetings that are open to the public:

• 2nd Thursday of every month
• 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
• Currently being held via WebEx (Please see public calendar for meeting information)

Agenda & Minutes

Subcommittees

The CPC subcommittees are made up of volunteers from the community and meet monthly outside of the public monthly meetings.  

• Community Outreach
  • Interim Chair, Bobby Brown
• Data & Analytics
  • Chair, Brendan Gioello
• Training
  • Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad

Events

• Coffee with a Cop, October 2019

Committee Documents & Helpful Links

• South Orange Police Department FAQs (posted September 2020)

Media

Tapinto SOMA

• Police Chief Kyle Kroll Addresses Community Regarding Tragic Death of George Floyd (May 30, 2020)

The Village Green

• VIDEO: South Orange Trustee Candidates Discuss Police Force Report (May 5, 2019)
  
• South Orange Police Chief: George Floyd ‘Murder’ by Police ‘Appalling’, ‘Inhumane,’ Unacceptable’ (May 31, 2020)
  
• Kroll: Thin Blue Line Patches to Be Disallowed for South Orange Police (June 10, 2020)
• South Orange Community Police Collaborative Discusses Role of Police, Potential Changes (June 16, 2020)
  
• What ‘Defund the Police’ Could Mean in Maplewood & South Orange (August 6, 2020)
• South Orange Community Police Collaborative Civilian Members Condemn Anti-Police Vandalism (August 10, 2020)
• South Orange, Maplewood Leaders Meet With County Prosecutor to Talk Police Use of Force, Accountability (September 21, 2020)

Other

Suggested Reading, Videos, and Podcast

• NPR Throughline: American Police (History of Policing in America; Audio by Khalil Muhammad, June 4, 2020)