Social media comment sparks meet up of Elk Grove police chief, construction worker – KCRA Sacramento

In Alvin Kimbrough’s line of work, he’s learned a thing or two about human connection. Standing post at construction sites, he’s communicating with people all the time.So when he saw a social media announcement Elk Grove Police Chief Tim Albright posted about his upcoming retirement, Kimbrough felt moved to reach out.”He had a long career. Over 30 years,” Kimbrough said. “I felt that, you know, this is an individual who I’m sure has done his best to be constructive in the community.”It’s what Kimbrough wrote as a comment on that social media post that compelled the chief to respond.”At some point, my wife was looking through them,” Albright said, in reference to the comments on his retirement announcement. “She pointed me to this comment – one of 200 or so.”Kimbrough’s comment read:”You know in a world where people seem To focus on differences more than similarities I’d like to meet a police chief. I work in your city right on Emerald Vista doing traffic control and will be there all week. My background is as different from your background as night and day as I was an ex offender. Now we’re both headed towards retirement you’ll probably get there quicker than I. It would be nice To dispel the stereotypes that white cops and black men are allergic to each other. Sometimes The best way to do that is simply just by being cordial and pleasant to each other so I invite you to stop by and say hello before you leave out the door”After reading that comment, the chief started looking everywhere around town for Kimbrough.”Before work, I would look, and if I had some free time at lunch, and on the way home,” Albright said. “It took me three days, but on that third day… I saw Alvin.”The two agreed to meet up for lunch to talk about things.”Those things that we have that are our commonalities as opposed to those things that make us different,” Albright said.And talk they did – sharing with each other their visions and hopes for the community, and for humanity.”Chief or anyone else, people are people, and at the end of the day, most people, I believe, genuinely mean each other good,” Kimbrough said. “We really have to find a way to, on a human level, look beyond our uniforms and look beyond our jobs, and find a connection with the next person.”The two shared many ideas and took away similar thoughts.”We tend to be polarized in our approach to so many things in society and nothing gets done on the ends of the spectrum,” Albright said. “It’s only as you move closer to the middle… even if you have to work to find what those commonalities are, that’s where progress is made.”Both men are hoping the story of their meeting will inspire people to find ways to do their own part in building bridges for the betterment of their communities.”It’s just one more affirmation that it’s incumbent upon people in the public to, despite their differences, try to find a middle ground and to reach out to one another,” Kimbrough said.Albright is set to retire from the Elk Grove Police Department in March. He said it is this the kind of connection he’s going to miss most about being police chief.