News 2020: A letter to the UMassD community from Police Chief Fioravanti

Chief Emil Fioravanti on the need for police to build trust within their communities

The members of the UMass Dartmouth Police Department are outraged by the criminal acts of the former Minneapolis Police Officers that resulted in the tragic death of George Floyd. We continue to lift his family and community and all affected by his disturbing and senseless death up in our thoughts and prayers.

As both a department and as individuals, we are committed to fostering community trust and ensuring the fair and equitable treatment of all community members in fulfilling our mission of protecting and serving our community. We recognize that when police officers have abused their authority and harmed members of the very communities they took oaths to protect, public trust between the community and law enforcement is eroded.

Our department is committed to community policing and will engage in a series of dialogues over the summer to better understand the lived experiences of our students and employees and are committed to building trust in our community. As human beings, we acknowledge that we are not perfect but we endeavor to be the best campus police department in the country because the people who work, study, and visit our University deserve nothing less. We are an accredited, highly trained and professional police department and we take pride in our relationships with those we serve. We empathize with those members of our community who have been negatively impacted by this tragedy, and commit to working with you to heal. #UMassDTogether

- Chief Emil Fioravanti & the men and women of the UMass Dartmouth Police Department