When Eddie Winters assumed control of the Harvey Police Department in May, shortly after a federal raid snagged two officers on corruption-related charges, one of the new chief’s top priorities was to rebuild the community’s trust in the department.
Seven months later, as the city winds down one of its deadliest years on record, Winters said he sees a brighter future ahead for Harvey and believes his efforts to engage residents and bridge the divide between police and the community will eventually pay off.
A symbol of that nascent relationship appeared on the side of some Harvey police squad cars earlier this month after Winters had them affixed with decals bearing the department’s new logo.
The logo, designed by an eighth grader at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, depicts a pair of outstretched, interlocking hands representing the partnership between police and the community that Winters said will be necessary to establish if the department wants to gain the community’s trust and establish legitimacy.
The design was selected through a Police Department contest Winters said he launched in hopes of engaging residents and giving them a voice in how the department was represented.
He said he figured that any rehabilitation of the department’s brand should involve the creation of a new logo and that, in the spirit of community engagement, residents should be the ones to design and select the image.
The contest enlisted students in fifth through eighth grades at Brooks Middle School to design the department’s new emblem. Afterward, the students’ finished works were hung in the school’s hallway so their classmates could assess and vote on their creations.
The chief, who was provided the top designs as voted on by students, made final selections and announced three winners in early November.
Kevin Fernandez, the first place winner, received a laptop and a T-shirt with his design; Zariah Plowden, another eighth grader whose design was chosen as runner-up, received a smart watch; and eighth grader Oscar Zambraus, the third place finisher, won a tablet.
All other participants received a gift card and a certificate of participation, the chief said.
Harvey Elementary School District 152 Superintendent John Thomas said students were enthused about the contest which, in addition to offering them prizes, allowed them “to see the Police as community as opposed to a threat.”
Mayor Christopher Clark, who attended the design contest ceremony at Brooks last month, said he thought it would inspire civic pride to see a Harvey student’s logo emblazoned on a city vehicle.
“We’re not close to being a perfect society…but we are changing the environment,” Clark said of his administration’s work in Harvey. “Once you change the environment, certain types of things can no longer grow there. And that’s what we’re doing a little bit at a time.”
Twitter @ZakKoeske