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Al Eskanazy, Chairman & CEO of the Community-Police Relations Foundation, was recently recognized as Citizen of the Year at the annual South Florida Police Benevolent Association Law Enforcement Award Gala. The event celebrates officers, remembers those who have fallen, and stands in solidarity with the surviving family members they left behind. The annual gala is a formal event that includes a sit-down dinner, an awards ceremony, live music, and dancing. It is attended by approximately 1,000 guests from law enforcement officers and their families, state officials, and local government leaders, members of the judiciary and South Florida residents.
“When it came time for us to select our Citizen of the Year, no one else was more fitting than Al Eskanazy. He has gone out of his way to not only support our organization, but also many other organizations that stand with our First Responders who find themselves in difficult times and financial hardships. CPRF is there to help others in very difficult times and we thank Al for being a champion with the law enforcement community. This is our way of showing that his generosity did not go unnoticed,” said Steadman Stahl, President of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association.
In the wake of recent incidents involving police use of force, the legitimacy of the police has been questioned in many communities. Many cities in the United States have experienced large-scale demonstrations and protest marches in 2014 and 2015, and in some cases, there have been riots over perceptions of police misconduct and excessive use of force.
Al set out to change this paradigm and improve the perception of our police officers within our communities. He sought to resolve the social and moral strife of the day by taking the pragmatic approach of having police officers socially interact with the communities they serve. Finding opportunities to participate with community members in a non-enforcement context has helped to reduce bias by community members and law enforcement officers. Personal interaction between officers and community members has also built trust and familiarity which is essential to address neighborhood problems and reduce crime.
Community-Police Relations Foundation (CPRF) was created in 2018 to improve relationships within communities by facilitating positive interactions with uniformed police officers. The goal is to reassure our communities that law enforcement officers are striving to keep our communities safe. CPRF works to instill trust and build respect in communities from Miami to New York, and Camden New Jersey and Chicago to Los Angeles. In the last four years, the Foundation has supported numerous initiatives to create a unified and harmonious relationship between law enforcement and the communities served. Initiatives include food for individuals and families in disadvantaged neighborhoods, mentorship for school-age youth, police officers’ participation in youth sports, awarding scholarships for graduating students, mental health training for law enforcement officers and spouses, supporting the fight against human trafficking and child abuse, preventing animal cruelty, and funding holiday festivities.
To learn more about CPRF, visit www.cprfcharity.org.
