The Irving Police Department and One Community USA hosted its “Shop Talk” event at North Lake Feb. 21.
Shop Talk is a community outreach program designed for residents who would not normally attend community town halls, but have a desire and need to have their voices heard.
Chief of police, Lauretta Hill welcomed all the police departments, barber shops, salons and One Community USA to the campus, she said, “Our mission for the Dallas College system is transforming lives. And communities of higher education, which is a lot of what Shop Talk is.”
Officer Jon Plunkett has been an officer for 30 years and said, “When I grew up. We didn’t have a police come around in our neighborhoods. It just didn’t happen.”
“I felt there was a call for service. So we just had to deal with issues going on in our neighborhood until we call the police. So after seeing all of the violence. I became a police officer,” said Plunkett.
By working in different cities over the years, Plunkett said he saw the lack of police in the minority communities.
After the July 7, 2016, shooting where Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed Dallas officers and killed five police officers and injuring nine others. Plunkett said, “Enough is enough. Why is this still happening?”
Later that same year, retired Chief Bobby pulled Plunkett from the gang task force to create the Shop Talk program.
“Barber shops have always been a sort of hang out place. Especially in the African American community,” Plunkett said.
“We walk in to have a conversation with the community. We answer questions openly and start a relationship with everyone,” Plunkett said.
After what happened to George Floyd the conversations started to change. “Today the conversations are a lot more serious,” Plunkett said.
However, the shop owners and customers started to ask to have Shop Talk in their cities Plunkett said.
Demetrius rancor, is the owner of the Five Star Barber Shop in Valley Ranch and said, “When I first went into his shop, he was nervous. It’s like police coming in now, come in their uniform and start talking to him about a program and he was like what is going on here? But after a few months, he said, “You know, I’m opening up a shop in the colony. I want the police in my shop.”
Rancor and Plunkett went to talk to the chief and said we’re going to make this here happen in the Colony and we did.”
Then Rancor wanted one where he lives in Dallas.
“We all met with Chief Paul and he said that it was already in the works, so we expanded it further into Dallas,” Plunkett said.
One of the barber shop owners Larry told Plunkett that something was missing in the program. “We were missing the ladies” Larry said.
“So, what we did is we reached out to Heather Foster,” said officer Plunkett. This lead to recruiting Heather Foster,” a North Lake Alumni and the first female in the Shop Talk program.
One Community USA, a nonprofit organization became interested in making Shop Talk go all over the Dallas-Fort-Worth area. Working with Plunkett, after a couple months they had more than 30 barber shops and salons in the DFW join the Shop Talk Program.
That is when Plunkett told chief Bobby that he wanted to expand the program to places such as Memphis, his hometown.
He received phone calls about the program from officers in California, Georgia and even a civilian in Miami. People all over the country want to implement Shop Talk into their community.
After Plunkett talked to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, on a trip to Washington, D.C., The Department of Justice became heavily involved and continues to work with the Shop Talk program.
