Officer Natasha Haunsperger: Hello. I'm Officer Natasha Haunsperger from the Office of Community Engagement. In this role, I've had the privilege of working with our Muslim community partners and advocates who established a Muslim Advisory Council, or MAC. Since February of 2016, MAC members have participated in numerous police programs and events addressing community safety and concerns. The emotional and mental wellness of police personnel is crucial for a safer and more effective police service. Positive and healthy interactions between officers and community members grounded in shared humanity, mutual acceptance and understanding can enhance organizational balance and strengthen police legitimacy. This video features testimony from sworn officers who reflect on their experiences engaging with MAC members, their partnership and its impact on their attitudes, well-being and perception of each other. Sgt. Leo Harris: My name is Leo Harris, and I'm a sergeant with the Portland Police Bureau, and I currently work in our training division. I've been associated with the Muslim Advisory Council for several years. In 2018, I was selected as the first wellness program coordinator. We initially started building classes related to sleep and fitness and nutrition and mindfulness. Those all play an important part of how well officers can interact with community members. We've also expanded the concept of wellness. Pretty simple. Sgt. Leo Harris: Officer Natasha Haunsperger and I co-created a class. We thought that there was a really good combination of officer wellness and community engagement. When you work hard and provide good customer service or give a gift, something valuable to someone and they appreciate it, how they treat you has a huge impact on you. And it's kind of a similar situation as officers are out on the street providing good customer service, and then a community member might respond with some kind of appreciation that helps you feel a certain way, and that can be like a social wellness. And so, through the Muslim Advisory Council, they have been coming, along with other advisory council groups, to that advanced academy class. We break the officers into small groups. They each interact with the different community advisory councils. And when the officers come back together, they give a presentation about what they learned. That allows officers to connect with community members when there's not a crisis, they're not on a call for service. This can help build a foundation for officers so that when they're out working in the community later, it's not strange or unfamiliar. It's a culture that you've already interacted with on several levels, and you're able to provide even better customer service so that you're not navigating a new circumstance or a new experience right then in the moment. You've already done that. Sgt. Matt Jacobsen: Having those personal normal conversations with folks in our community, having the ability to have those relationships when the bad thing hasn't happened, I think is pretty important. My name is Matt Jacobsen. I'm a sergeant with the Major Crimes Unit in the Detective Division of the Portland Police Bureau. My unit handles armed robberies, aggravated assaults, and all of our bias and hate crime events that occur in the city. I've been a member of the Muslim Advisory Council for almost two and a half years. The ability to have trusted and known entities within our various communities, specifically the Muslim community, makes us far more efficient. Not only does it provide us credibility by, with and through our Muslim Advisory Council members, but it provides a starting point to build our own community networks. Great example of this is actually fairly recent. My team was called out and began investigating a fairly serious assault that occurred in the parking lot of a local mosque. It involves community members from that mosque. Our patrol division responded, took an initial statement and facilitated medical treatment for the victim, but then ran into some issues getting more information from other members of the mosque. I was out on that call-out and immediately realized that I had several contacts that could help facilitate us getting the information we needed, and we're able to be introduced to the leaders of that mosque, built some credibility through our Muslim Advisory Committee members, and we're able to obtain the needed evidence. We're able to identify the suspect and take them into custody. The immediacy and the ease of which I was able to problem-solve to get that needed evidence was absolutely instrumental in holding a violent perpetrator accountable. Sgt. Leo Harris: Those officers who interacted with the Muslim Advisory Council members in the advanced academy class were invited back to the iftar dinner and got to reconnect with the members of the Muslim Advisory Council. And when they're thanking the officers for coming to the iftar dinner and interacting with them, you could see the officers feeling proud and appreciated. Sgt. Matt Jacobsen: I think we look at wellness as kind of apart from our day-to-day jobs. The unique thing about the Muslim Advisory Council, or other advisory councils, is it provides a lot of that within and through our day-to-day jobs. Having that feedback, having those relationships, feeling appreciated and, frankly, being able to do our job more easily plays a huge part into that. Sgt. Leo Harris: I think agencies are frequently looking for different ways to engage with the community and for us, this has been a really important way to do it.