Tupper

Marshalltown is ripe with diversity and its police department here for everyone.

Mike Tupper, police chief, was interviewed for a report on “Building Trust with Immigrant Communities” for the Law Enforcement Task Force and Policy Executive Research forum.

His insight was helpful because a growing percentage of Marshalltown’s population is made of immigrants from different countries and ethnicities.

“We have an excellent working relationship with our community here,” Tupper said. “It’s just working with people and we all have concerns and we all want the same things in our community, safe neighborhoods, safe schools just a safe place to raise a family.”

It’s important for police departments to work with its communities to keep everyone safe and secure, he said.

In the report Tupper talked about how often scams are attempted on immigrant populations.

“We try to push information out,” he said. “Over the last couple months it’s been difficult because we’re not able to hold community events and interact with the public as much as we’d like.”

For Tupper it’s all about communication and getting correct information out to the public.

Communication is double important and can be challenging because of language barriers.

“I only have one officer currently that speaks Spanish, so we use a lot of translators,” Tupper said.

He’s struggled with refugee populations because of the variety of languages and dialects spoken.

“We’re always looking for interpreters, so if there’s anyone in the community interested in helping us with that, that is something we pay people for,” Tupper said.

Translators can get about $30 an hour for helping the police department when they’re called up.

“The Marshalltown Police Department is here for everybody that calls Marshalltown home or works or visits the community,” Tupper said. “Regardless of where you come from, it’s safe to reach out to us for help.”

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Contact Thomas Nelson at tnelson@timesrepublican.com