By Michael Hutchins / Herald Democrat
Nearly two dozen members of local law enforcement were recognized Saturday for their efforts in the community by the Grayson County chapter of the NAACP.
The organization held a ceremony at Austin College this weekend to honor the Black officers and law enforcement officials along with their leadership that help build relationships within the community.
“I want to say that we want you to know that not only do we appreciate you, but that we see your work,” Grayson County NAACP Chapter President Al Hambrick said. “We see what you do, and a lot of times, you know, we don’t say that. But, we see what you do in the community. We notice your leadership; we notice your staffing patterns; we notice all those little things that people in the community take a look at.”
The event brought together representatives from more than a half-dozen organizations, including the cities of Sherman and Denison and their respective school districts and Grayson County itself, among others. Officers and departments were thanked during the event for their efforts to build relationships within the community with residents and organizations like the NAACP.
Members of the organization, local law enforcement leadership and other community members spoke on the efforts that these officers make in the community every day. As an example of these efforts, Sherman-based Lawyer Pamela McGraw spoke on a recent interaction between officers and a visitor from Dallas. Though the situation was tense, the officers were able to deescalate the situation through humor, patience and empathy, she said.
In total, 20 officers were recognized for their efforts. Among those officers was Odis Luper, who has spent the past 40 years in law enforcement and the past 20 working with students at Denison Independent School District.
Luper started his career in law enforcement at the age of 22 and said the work helped him grow as a person.
“It was a really good experience for me and helped me grow up a lot,” he said. “The community, as a whole as far as Denison is concerns has been a great place to work and people have been really good and helped me out a lot.”
“It is great that people look and see the
African-American community as far as the police community is concerrned is a part of what we try to do to make everybody safe,” Luper continued. “When we start talking about our school district and kind of wanting the same, our goal is to make sure our kids are safe and feel safe coming to school.”
The Denison Police Department currently employs one Black officer due to a recent retirement and a departure by another officer to a larger police department. However, the department is currently hiring and expects to have more Black officers in its ranks in the near future.
We lost one recently to retirement, and another one went to another larger agency in the Metroplex, but we are in the hiring process right now and we have a couple in line,” Gudgel said.
It is important for the department to have a diverse group of officers in its ranks, Gudgel said, as it ensures the department best represents the community that it is sworn to protect and serve.
“Diversity for our department means that we need to be looking at the reflection of our city,” he said. “That’s very important for us to look like our city and recruitment and those kinds of things are very important to get the next level of officer into our department.”
