A couple hundred attendees from both the local and student communities came out Wednesday and mingled with officers over Kiser’s BBQ at the fifth annual BBQ on the Bricks.
“So many people, when they have to deal with the police, it's often, you know, very stressful, something bad has happened,” Jackie Wolf, Joint Police Advisory Council secretary and Faculty Senate representative, said. “This is just a way for people to enjoy a social event with both the Athens Police and the OUPD.”
The event is put on by the Joint Police Advisory Council in conjunction with the university, the Ohio University Police Department and the Athens Police Department.
“I think it's a great opportunity, especially for us,” OUPD Lieutenant Tim Ryan said. “Sometimes, we don't have as many positive opportunities to interact with the public, and we like to have more of those.”
The event was welcomed by police officers as a fun, lighthearted interaction with the community. Patrol Officer Amelia Jenne said that it was nice to be able to just have normal, everyday conversations with staff, students and community members.
“It's kind of like a community outreach, meet and greet,” Jenne said. “You have both OU and APD here just meeting the students with the staff and the community, just everybody to getting to know each other and have good experiences.”
During the event, students had the opportunity to approach and start conversations with officers, collect poker chips from the OUPD Poker Chip Challenge and even participate in a group dance of the “Cha Cha Slide” with officers.
There was also a large attendance from university staff and community members at the event, including Jason Pina, vice president of Student Affairs, who came with his family.
“I think it's good for my son, who's in middle school, to also see police in all kinds of lights and in a different, more social light and seeing how they give back to their community and that people work together with them to make a safer city,” Pina said.
There was a large number of students in attendance, many of which who liked the idea of building the relationship between students and cops.
“I think it's a good way to kind of like bridge the gap between students and cops, because I feel like a lot of times students don't always interact with cops in the nice way,” Joe Chema, a junior majoring in finance, said.
Casey Hall-Jones, a junior majoring in economics, said he initially came to the event to collect poker chips for the challenge, but he also thought it would be cool to learn how to interact with officers outside of getting arrested.
Other students, like Tori Swarm, a graduate student studying college student personnel, came for the food.
“So I think it's hit or miss, but I think it's a great chance to really see the police and realize that they're here to help us,” Swarm said.
