As part of National Faith and Blue Weekend, we are spotlighting how people are coming together to build strong connections between law enforcement and the community. For this spotlight, we are shinning a light on Tulsa, Oklahoma, through a discussion with Officer Nathaniel (Sean) Terrell, City of Tulsa Police Department Community Engagement Officer, and Pastor Tommy McLaurin of SpiritLife Church. Here is our discussion.
What was interesting to you about participating in National Faith and Blue Weekend?
Pastor Tommy: I had never heard of it until I got a call from Donnie Johnson who works with Sean as community police (resource) officers here in our city. And he starts telling me about this weekend and what it was all about. And the more he said, the more I was thinking, wow, how can our church get involved, can we offer our location for this? And he said, “That’s exactly why I called.” To give some background we’ve been working together for a while to reach our community in a positive way, and one of the ways that we’ve done that is with a weekly cookout. We grill hamburgers and hotdogs in the neighborhood, people come together, we serve them a hamburger or a hot dog, and try to interact with them. One of the things we say at SpiritLife Church is that we’re not just a church in our community, we’re a church for our community. It’s natural to be working with the Tulsa Police Department; we have the same vision. We both just want to make our community a better place, a safer place, where people are growing.
Officer Terrell: I had never heard of it either. I was checking out the One COP program, and I was trying to get that program implemented in our department. Because I also recognize that our churches and houses of worship have always been our biggest ally, our biggest asset in trying to bridge the gap; to engage the community. I was already trying to find ways to get involved with the community and I saw this link for Faith and Blue, and thinking what is this all about. And I started reading what this initiative is all about. And I think it’s so desperately needed with all that’s going on in our country. All the divisiveness – our community needs something that brings us together. Faith can be that common bond. It was a no brainer for me that our community needs to get involved in this. We’re glad that we have leaders like Pastor Tommy who have been so supportive in serving the community, and it’s coming together real quickly.
PT: I would just add to what Sean said about the national climate right now – where there does seem to be such division. And the police department has certainly been in the crosshairs of a lot of that. I know how I was raised, my dad was a cop, so I was raised to respect the police department, to respect law enforcement. And I think in a place like Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the heart of the United States, there are a lot of people with values that appreciate, respect, and honor the hard work of the police department. So it’s just a natural thing for us to want to show them our support. And not just say it occasionally, but demonstrate our support in a very tangible way.
And how did you choose your activity?
OT: As Pastor T said, we’ve been doing those cookouts every week for quite a while. So we just thought it natural to do the same, similar thing, but on a bigger scale, to really take advantage of the campus that SpiritLife has, they have a huge parking lot, basketball gym, and a big grass lot that we could use. It was the first thought that came to mind. And SpiritLife said let’s do a community cookout, let’s give away some prizes, let’s make it real fun, have some music. Utilize that gym they have for a community basketball game to take advantage of the phenomenal facilities they have.
PT: For me, even before they said they would like for it to be at SpiritLife, I thought, “That can happen here.” As we continued our planning, and I realized it’s going to be on a Sunday, I began wondering how can we even incorporate our Sunday morning worship time. And I think we came away with a neat idea – a great panel that can discuss race and justice during our Sunday morning services.
What do you hope will result from your participating in National Faith and Blue Weekend
OT: For me, I hope that a lot of our officers in our department come out and know that the community supports them, specifically for this event, that they know SpiritLife is a place where they are loved and accepted. Our department has been through a lot. We had a line of duty death two months ago, and so, my hope is that we will be able to build on Faith and Blue, not just this event, all the events, to bridge the gap, and tear down some of these barriers that have been prevalent in our community since 1921. We had the Tulsa Race Massacre, we have some baggage that we need to deal with. My hope is that Faith and Blue can move us toward reconciliation and collaborative policing in our community. It’s kind of two fold, I want our officers to know that the community supports them. Not everybody hates them. There are a lot of people that love them. And to stream roll reconciliation between the community and the police
PT: Everything he said. A couple things I might add. From my perspective, to whatever degree it is possible, I hope that the walls of separation can be broken down. To just see that the police in our community are not our enemy – they are here to help us. One of the TPD Hispanic officers is going to share with our Hispanic congregation. There is a lot of distrust with the immigrant community towards law enforcement. We want them to know that these guys (law enforcement) are not against you. They are here for all of us. I’m not here to make a judgement about legal status – they are here, and at this point we want to make sure they are safe. Likewise, our children’s services are going to have a police officer share with our kids that the police are our friends – if you ever need someone to go to for help, here is someone you can trust. And I hope that this spills over to the larger community. And then I hope that this is a foundation that can be built upon into the future. There can be greater levels of participation between the blue and faith communities, that whenever there is a crisis, our church is here. That we can help the police department at that moment. That if they need counseling, if they need spiritual support, if they need prayer, we are here for them. I want to see us have the relationships established so that when those crisis moments come, we can go to each other, and that it becomes natural to lean on each other.
How do you feel that the faith community on a national level can best engage with the law enforcement community?
PT: The things that we are talking about need to happen in every city nationally, but it needs to be driven on a local level. A national local effort needs to happen, where every police department and the faith community in every city, whatever size it is, know how they can mutually support each other.
OT: I think that that was a tough question, but I think that’s a great answer. We live in such a time that something may happen. We’re in Oklahoma, something might happen in Washington, and it affects our relationship with the community right here in Tulsa, and vice-versa. Like Pastor T is saying, it’s going to take strong relationships in individual cities. For us to say that what happened there is bad but we have such a relationship with our police department that we trust them, that we know them, that we’re going to work together. As we see those strong relationships between our communities and law enforcement start to grow, that this is a national movement, that it’s bigger than any one city, that it starts in each city to become a national movement
PT: Sean, I think it’s interesting that both our communities have suffered tarnish marks by individuals who have disappointed us, who have not represented us well. It’s in the papers and on the news every time something is caught on a video involving a police officer. And maybe when the dust settles it is clear they did something they shouldn’t have done. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have happened. It was bad policing. While we need to be honest about it, we need to also recognize that it doesn’t reflect on the character of the law enforcement community as a whole. In the church community, the Christian community, we have had our faults. We have had to acknowledge when someone does wrong, but also assert that their mistake doesn’t represent who we are as a whole. I think to some degree, you and I (Sean) have that in common. We want to represent the best in our communities, but we recognize that we’re human, that people disappoint us.
Any other thoughts that you would like to share?
OT: I just appreciate this opportunity; it’s the first time that we’ve done this. How many people are we planning for – 200 or 2000 – we don’t know. But I believe that this is the beginning of something. I’m glad to be on the front end of the beginning of something like this.
PT: And I’m glad to be working with friends like Sean. He is becoming more and more a brother in the faith to me, not just a man who wears the blue.
OT: I appreciate that.
PT: It might have taken more time; we would have eventually figured this out. But this process of working together to plan Faith and Blue in Tulsa has put our relationship-building on a fast track.
OT: Absolutely, I want to add that – that I too, am just humbled to be a part of this process, to be a part of the change that is necessary in our community, a part of police reform, for the better. Our Chief, Wendell Franklin, is always preaching that be a part of the community, we need to be consistent, we need to be constantly evaluating our methods. He’s been very vocal about having our department be more active in the community. To do more positive engagement. So we believe that this will be a big giant step toward more positive engagement. And so the Tulsa police department – we’re just super excited. We can’t wait for the event. We can see what change it brings for a better Tulsa. And a better Oklahoma. And a better United States.