Officer Farhat with his wife and two daughters.

DEARBORN
– Officer Mohamad Farhat was on duty at Dearborn’s Homecoming when a lost child
who only spoke Arabic came up to him and asked for assistance.

“There
were a lot of kids who were lost,” said Farhat, who helped children on
three separate occasions locate their parents. “They weren’t able to speak
English and I was able to understand the message they were trying to send me.”

Farhat,
30, is one of the latest additions to the Dearborn Police Department. He was
plucked straight out of the local community. He attended Fordson High School,
went to Henry Ford Community College and obtained a criminal justice degree from
Madonna University.

He had
an opportunity to work for either Michigan State Police or the Dearborn Police
Department. He chose the latter because he felt it was vital to give back to
the community that embraced him when he left Lebanon in 2001 and moved here.

“I spoke
no English when I came here,” Farhat said. “I had to learn my way. I worked
full time at Greenland Market and I had to help my parents with living, costs
and housing.”

In 2010,
Farhat got married. He now has two daughters and still resides in east Dearborn.

This
year, he underwent extensive police academy training for 17 weeks at Oakland
Community College during his hiring process at the police department. It was a
challenge for him because it was Ramadan and he was fasting. However, the
academy allowed him to take breaks for Iftar.

In June,
Farhat was assigned to patrol Dearborn’s neighborhoods with another officer.

Having
spent years working at Greenland Market, a local grocery store that caters to
the Lebanese, Iraqi and Yemeni communities, Farhat said he’s been able to learn dialects and understand the slightly different cultures. He’s already
been applying that knowledge as a community police officer.

 “Whenever I’m on patrol and we do runs, I’ll
walk up to different homes and talk to the families in Arabic,” Farhat said.
“They are very happy to have a police officer who speaks their language in
order to send the right message and fix the issues.”

He
recalls another incident when officers were searching for a missing woman with
Alzheimer’s and were directed to go into a women-only hair salon.

Farhat with his parents and Chief Haddad

“I
explained to them that you probably don’t want to go inside because females in
there aren’t wearing their headscarves,” Farhat said. “Those little things are
very helpful. They took my advice instead of going inside and running into a
problem.”

Earlier
this year, the police department came under fire after two Arab police officers
quit the force and claimed their co-workers were treating them poorly. However,
Farhat said he hasn’t had any such issues.

He said
that Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad has an open door policy and is willing to
hear out issues or concerns from new hires. But Farhat hasn’t run into any
problems.

“From
the officers, to the corporals and sergeants, the whole department is very
understanding,” he said. “They are always joking around with new officers. They
call me ‘Mr. Fresh out of the Police Academy.’ They aren’t being serious about
it. Nothing like that makes me upset and it has nothing to do with me being
Arabic. That’s just my experience.”

Farhat
is one of a few Arabs to recently join the department. This month, Amal
Chammout, a Muslim woman from Dearborn, joined the force as an ordinance
officer. Other officers are also currently going through training and are
expected to soon be hired.