Apr. 7—GRAND FORKS — Since implementing the Safe Places program in July of last year, the Grand Forks Police Department says more businesses throughout the community have signed onto the program.
The program, which was originally started by the Seattle Police Department in 2015 and has since spread to other departments across the nation and the world, is meant to establish safe places where people from underserved communities feel comfortable going to report a crime.
These safe places include businesses across the community that sign onto the program and receive the needed training from the GFPD.
In July of 2021, six businesses signed onto the program
including Badman Design on South Third Street, The Love in Action for Community Input on University Avenue, Northern Roots Boutique on Columbia Road, MNH gas station on North Fifth Street and Starbucks on South Washington and Columbia.
Since then, seven more businesses have signed on including Flippin' Happy Home Decor & More and Decontee's Hair Braiding and More, both on North Washington; Michaels on 32nd Avenue; YouthWorks; the Alerus Center on South 42nd Street; Diamonds on DeMers and High Plains Fair Housing, both on DeMers Avenue.
GFPD LGBT Liaison, Brian Samson, said he hopes to see more businesses continue to join the program.
When a business becomes a Safe Places participant, employees receive general training on the expected responsibilities, such as allowing staff to call the police if someone wanting to report a crime doesn't have a cell phone, ensuring that people reporting a crime can wait at the business until police respond and making sure everyone is treated respectfully.
"It's just simple things like that the business can do to be more friendly during the time when someone is trying to report a crime," Samson said.
Police officers also go through mandated LGBT diversity and cultural diversity training and anti-bias training yearly.
With the purpose of the Safe Places program striving to ensure people feel comfortable to report crimes such as hate crimes, Samson said he hopes people in the community feel more comfortable reporting these crimes.
"I hope that they are (comfortable) and I know part of it is also educating the public and so whenever I reach out to new groups, I bring up that there's options available to report hate crimes and other crimes as a way to make them feel more comfortable," Samson said. "Obviously I can't speak to how the people feel, it's just us trying to take another step to assist people and make them more comfortable."