After a recent crime was committed against a Korean family, local law enforcement and the city of Greenville put on a seminar to help educate the Korean community about the role of law enforcement in the community.

“In Luverne, a Korean family was robbed twice and never called the police,” Police Chief Lonzo Ingram said. “Certainly the robber threatened him. He went to work and talked about it and their work called us.”

The basis of the seminar was for everyone, but especially the Korean community to learn about working with law enforcement.

“It was to share some information about crime prevention and keep your family safe,” Ingram said. “It was to also improve relationships between the Korean community and law enforcement.”

About 65 to 70 people showed up to learn and mostly ask questions to law enforcement.

Mayor Dexter McLendon was pleased with the seminar and hoped it better the community.

“I think we sometimes take for granted that we just know to call 911 when something happens,” McLendon said. “For our Korean friends, it’s so different in South Korea, we had a seminar about going doing the right things in case they have some problems. We invited our surrounding counties, and I thought it was great.”

The biggest concern for the Korean community seemed to be the language barrier.

“We had a good question and answer session, which a lot of the questions came from the crowd on how we’re going to bridge the language barrier and improve communications,” Ingram said. “That’s what we’ll be working on, and we’re here to facilitate that. We’ll do that through technology, but we’re going to get it worked out.”

McLendon wanted to make sure that the community experiences southern hospitality.

“We wanted to let them know that we want to be there for them if something goes wrong because it’s just the right thing to do,” McLendon said. “We benefit from it by letting them know that we care and we want to help and when another Korean company or foreign company of any kind might decide to locate in Greenville, they will be able to tell them that this town has opened their arms and understands the American way.”