Last month, police officers from local and state police departments participated in a Generational Differences training provided by a collaborative effort of the WVU Police Department, Talent and Culture and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Together, participants gained knowledge on the best ways to communicate with Millennials and Generation Z, the two generations that make up most of the WVU student population.
“Effective communication with these generations allows police agencies to understand how to get messages to individuals in the way that they need to receive information in order to be most effective,” said Ed Preston, Chief of the Morgantown Police Department.
The all-day training consisted of presentations and activities led by officers from UPD and Morgantown Police, Cris DeBord, Maria Mancini and Chelsea Thomas from WVU Talent and Culture, Dr. Aaron Metzger from the WVU Psychology Department and Jen Randall Reyes from the WVU Carruth Center. A panel discussion also took place where WVU students, police officers and Carruth Center representatives answered questions on a variety of topics, providing different points of view.
"Not only is this training beneficial for helping police officers understand how to build trust with WVU students, but also for encouraging community policing between officers of our state and local police departments," said Cris DeBord, Vice President of WVU Talent and Culture.
Training participants included officers from UPD, Morgantown Police Department, Star City Police Department, WVU Parkersburg Campus Police Department and Glenville State Police Department. A local school Resource Officer, dispatchers and employees of WVU Medicine were also in attendance.
"We are constantly training and looking for ways to improve our interaction with the campus community," said UPD Deputy Chief Philip Scott. "This training moves us closer to that goal of better understanding each other."
For more information on this training, contact Sgt. Peggy Runyon of UPD at peggy.runyon@mail.wvu.edu.