Lavonia Faith and Blue Weekend A Success, Says Police Chief

Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle says this year’s Faith and Blue weekend was a bigger success than he expected.

Faith and Blue weekend took place in Lavonia this past weekend and was part of the National Faith & Blue Weekend, which is designed to facilitate safer and stronger communities by engaging law enforcement officers and local residents through faith-based organizations.

Chief Carlisle said they had a great turnout for Saturday’s Party in the Park.

“Faith and Blue weekend was a huge success again,” he said Monday. “Obviously, this time of year you’re competing with other festivals and events that are going on but taking that into consideration we had a good crowd. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event. Everything we had planned went off without a hitch. And I just want to thank everybody that was involved in the event Saturday to make it a success.”

National Faith and Blue weekend is three days of locally organized community-officer engagement as part of the nation’s largest annual collaborative policing initiative.

On Sunday, officers from the Lavonia Police Department spoke at different church services about their commitment to the community.

“Then on Sunday there were officers in all of the local churches who went in and spoke to the congregation to tell them what Faith and Blue weekend was all about and ask for their continued support,” he explained. “This is a national event and events were going on all over the country and we were just proud to be a part of it.”

Begun in 2020 by MovementForward, Inc., Faith and Blue weekend works with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) at the U.S.Department of Justice.

The idea was a simple but powerful one — the ties that bind officers and residents must be reinforced if we are to build neighborhoods where everyone feels safe and included.