“Everyone in this place has the privilege of serving our community with courage and honor, love and truth, we ask that you would help us with that,” began the West Jordan fourth annual Police Prayer Breakfast on Oct. 12 at City Hall.

The breakfast is held annually on the Faith & Blue weekend that is meant to create “stronger communities” by connecting local law enforcement across the United States with faith leaders and organizations within the community, per Faith & Blue. West Jordan joined in the efforts four years ago by starting the breakfast tradition within the city.

In the past two years attendance has doubled, with more than 35 different faith leaders attending this year. 

Faith leaders from local congregations and organizations like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah Christian Fellowship Church, Lifeline Community Church, Hope Lutheran Church, Mountain Vista United Methodist Church, Cross Tower Church of Christ, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Utah Islamic Center, the Point Church, Sikh Church, chaplains from Holy Cross Hospital and more attended the event to share their insights. 

In addition to the prayer breakfast, the West Jordan Police Department offers local congregations active shooter training to prepare against violence. 

West Jordan Police Chief Ken Wallentine, who identified himself as a Christian, centered the breakfast discussion around two points: “what are you and your congregation doing to help local law enforcement” and “how can local law enforcement better help you?”

Most leaders asked for more patrolling of church buildings to safeguard against vandalism and requested the police department attend church events to connect better with different groups. 

Wallentine followed up with some of his own requests for local congregations.

“My first request is to take care of one another, and then you see that we might be helpful extending your reach beyond what you think is possible,” Wallentine said. He noted that having a strong faith population is related to having lower crime rates.

He spoke of an experience his friend had while attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when he came in late. The whole meeting would stop for the rest of the members to greet him and recognize his choice to be there. Wallentine invited the faith groups to welcome others with these same open arms. 

“What would it take for your church to become a place where grace is on tap?” he asked.

His next request was for help looking for those with integrity to join the force.

“The challenge is not just finding people who are diverse in terms of their background, in terms of their ethnicity, but in terms of their faith beliefs and their language abilities,” he said. “We’re trying to hire officers who represent the diversity of our community.”

His last request was perhaps the most simple of them all: “Pray for us.” λ