police: smiling man with red shirt, khaki pants leans on SUV labelled Jacksonville Police

Alabama Police Chief Discusses Whether Policing Can Be Safer For Officers, Communities

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JACKSONVILLE, Alabama — When Marcus Wood was a kid, he said, the neighborhood police hosted barbecues for his community, handing out sticker badges, teaching him and his friends to fish. “I grew up in what you would call the projects,” Wood said. “Those cops influenced my life in a very positive way.”

Today Wood, 34, is the first Black police chief in Jacksonville, a small university town. A native of Weaver, Alabama, he previously worked as an Army police officer, a National Guardsman, a corrections officer, a fugitive investigator and a trainer for the state’s police academy at his alma mater, Jacksonville State University. 

This year, as Black Lives Matter protests assembled in cities around the world in the wake of Minnesota police killing George Floyd, an unarmed Black man suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill, protesters gathered for days in Jacksonville to discuss police brutality and racism in the justice system. At the time, in June, Wood told a local TV news station: “We appreciate [protesters] being a force for us, because we don’t want bad cops in law enforcement.” The comment came with the announcement of a citywide curfew.

Grant Offers Juvenile Court Drug Training Program

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, The U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of Justice Programs offers the 2011 Best Practices for Juvenile Courts Training Grant. The objective is for  juvenile drug courts to better serve kids who are involved in substance abuse, co-occurring substance abuse, and mental health trauma. This will be accomplished by using the Sixteen Strategies of Effective Juvenile Drug Courts as a framework to help build competency, performance and the capacity of the juvenile drug courts nationwide.  The Deadline for this is June 6, 2011 @ 11: 59 EST.

Agencies Collaborate To Help Child Immigrants

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Collaboration -- how social service agencies and non-profits can do it more effectively -- was the prevailing theme Thursday at a U.S. Immigration Services (USIS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hosted training seminar aimed at helping to better protect endangered immigrant children. Georgia Division of Family Services employees, immigrant children advocates, social workers, community volunteers and others who work with immigrant children, came together for the three-hour session held at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services offices near Northlake Mall. Organizers say the objective was to bring together representatives from local, state and federal agencies, along with non-profit organizations, to provide information and technical assistance. The goal was to inform staffers how to identify and assist abused documented and undocumented immigrant children who are victimized, neglected or abandoned. “It was an idea that was brought to us by DFACS (Department of Children And Family Services),” explains USIS District Director Denise Frazier.

Training: Special Visas for Kids

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The U.S. Immigration Services and Homeland Security will present a special training seminar for Georgia Division of Family Services employees, immigrant children advocates, social workers, community volunteers, and others who work with immigrant children.  Immigrant children who have been abused, neglected, victimized, or abandoned may have humanitarian visa options available that may help these children regain stability, safety, and permanency.  This seminar will provide the technical knowledge you need to identify and assist these children.  Department of Homeland Security HQ policy analysts will be traveling from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta to present this special training.  Details:

SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE VISAS & VICTIMS OF CRIMES and HUMAN TRAFFICKING

DATE / TIME: Thursday,  August 12, 2010 9:00 a.m.  to  12:00 noon

LOCATION:   US Citizenship & Immigration Services, 2150 Parklake Drive NE, Atlanta, GA  30345,  Second floor Ceremony Room

PARKING:  Free

SECURITY NOTE:  All visitors subject to airport-style security screening

CONTACT:   Joseph.Kernan@DHS.gov or     phone 770-508-1862