Last week the club welcomed Norristown Chief of Police DERRICK WOOD to address the club. Chief Wood spoke on current goals and activities of there department and their affect on the community. He stressed that his main concern is the reduction in violence concentrating on the youth and setting up several programs to work with community groups in reducing youth violence and especially the use of guns . Direct intervention with youth is stressed as a means of avoiding relying of arrests when dealing with youth. He added both a Director of Mental Health and a School Resource Officer to his staff to help address this issue. IT was stressed that parental involvement is essential in battling this epidemic and stated that parents must be more aware of what their kids are doing and be involved in their lives, and point reinforced by Denise Ashe relating how OIC has worked with the Police Department to involve parents and kids in a variety of activities. This was during the follow-up Question and Answer session where Chief Wood offered more details on the departments interactions with various community organizations. The difficult issue of illegal guns getting into the hands of youth and what steps the department is taking to slow down the flow, was also discussed.
thank you very much Chief Wood for coming and sharing your views with us.