The U.S. Department of Justice is having Pasco, Washington, police officers and residents meet for coffee and a conversation Wednesday following the police shooting of a farmworker there earlier in February.
The Department of Justice wants to aid the city in improving its policing and this coffee date with citizens kicks it off. The DOJ will also bring community relations experts to Pasco to train the department as part of a year-long program.
It comes as Pasco readies for an interagency report to be filed over the fatal police shooting of a farmworker who was throwing rocks at a busy intersection in February. In a news release the DOJ called the shooting “tragic” and said the year of training was requested by the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington and Pasco police.
Similar DOJ programs have been rolled out in Ferguson, Missouri, Seattle and Spokane.
