Rookie Cops Get Diversity Lesson
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The police department invited some of its most vocal critics yesterday to a community outreach program for rookie officers that was beefed up after the shooting death of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.
More than 1,000 new recruits filled Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater for the start of a four-day program, called Advancing Community Trust, that focuses on issues such as diversity and the department’s stop-and-frisk policy, which critics claim singles out minorities.
The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said recruits are already well trained in community relations but the program is an added focus.
“We’re always going to have some tension; it’s the nature of what we do,” Mr. Kelly said. “We issue summonses, we use force, we’re the bearers of bad news. We always have to work at improving our relations with the community.”
The panel discussion yesterday included such New York Police Department critics as the Reverend Lester Williams, the pastor who was to marry Sean Bell and his fiancée, but instead presided over Bell’s funeral a week after the slaying.
Bell died in a hail of 50 police bullets near a Queens topless bar where he was celebrating his bachelor party, prompting questions about the use of deadly force in minority communities.
Rev. Williams said he welcomed the opportunity to work with the police department, adding that Mr. Kelly was “bending over backward” to improve relations and had recently gone to Queens to tour the neighborhood where Bell was shot.
Rev. Williams said he believes the relationship between police and the community has improved since the shooting, despite the scattered protests after the officers’ acquittals.
“I think it’s very important that we maintain this level of trust, maintain this level of service and work with each other,” he said.