Church hosts forum to discuss police-community relations

About 20 people attended a forum at the Valley Stream Presbyterian Church last Saturday — a lighter turnout than organizers expected — to discuss ways to improve the relationship between police and communities of color.

“You can’t just have an African-American officer there,” Peter Phileston, who organized the event, said of officer Hoscar Walters, the only member of the Nassau County Police Department to attend. “There should be someone representing every ethnicity, if possible, or at least two or three, because it’s not just a black problem, a white problem or Hispanic problem. It’s police officers and the community, so there should be more faces there.”

Walters gave a PowerPoint presentation on what civilians should and shouldn’t do when they encounter police officers, and then fielded questions from the audience.

Phileston, of Elmont, founded the record label Kella Fella Productions, and uses music as a platform for his advocacy. He also works as a mentor for the church’s youth group for young black men, the WANTED Project.

Phileston said he contacted several officers as he was organizing the forum, which he called Bridging the Gap, but he understood that law enforcement officials are busy. He did not, however, understand why more members of the community didn’t attend, he said.

“I put it out there … I really wish there were more people there,” he said.
Many of those who did attend voiced concerns about a racial divide between police and civilians. Some said they believed that many officers have never interacted with African-Americans before, and are uncomfortable when they do.

“We always see the police officers who are of color,” said the Rev. Kymberley Clemons-Jones, a pastor at the church. “I know it’s important for them to come out and keep us in the loop, but we need to see other police officers who are not of color. We want to know that they care just as much about our various communities. That is bridging the gap.”

Another major concern was the lack of relationships between police officers and community members. Though law enforcement officers are there to protect and serve, many residents who spoke at the event said they believed those officers should also get to know the people they’re serving when they’re off duty by attending community events.

“We know they save lives,” said Doreen Page, a Valley Stream resident, “but one-on-one dialogue and interaction is missing.” Page added that the focus should be on “having a positive relationship between the police and the community by putting officers out in the community in more positive situations instead of just the negative.”

Clemons-Jones echoed Page’s sentiments, saying she thought the onus was on police officers to make themselves a part of the community, and not the other way around.

Throughout the discussion, Walters listened to the concerns people expressed and offered signs of hope in his rebuttals. He told the audience that police officers undergo diversity training, and he said he planned to go up the chain of command to see if anything can be done to immerse law enforcement officials more deeply in their communities.

“Each cop is different,” Walters said. “So each interaction you have with one person may be bad, but you may have another one which is good. Everyone’s different.”

He also heralded the NCPD’s Explorers program as hope for the future. The program trains people ages 14 to 20 in life skills, citizenship, character education and leadership, all while offering career opportunities. A few Explorers attended the forum, and spoke about what they’ve learned.

Phileston said he plans to hold more open forums across Long Island and in New York City. The next event, he said, will be on Dec. 17 in Westbury, but he has not yet chosen a venue. As for Saturday’s discussion, he said he took many positives away from the afternoon, which included his surprise to learn about the Explorers program as well as the presence of problem-oriented policing, or POP, officers in different communities. He looked to those entities as ways to successfully bridge the gap between law enforcement and civilians in the future.

“My goal for today was for everybody — both police officers and the community — to leave here saying to themselves, ‘At least there’s hope,’” Phileston said. “Not to feel, ‘That’s a police officer, run away from them, they’re just here to lock you up or shoot you.’ And even for the police officers, not to look at people and say, ‘I don’t trust them.’ If we can have an open line of communication, there’s more respect there.”

For more information about future events, contact Peter Phileston on Facebook or by email at pphillybusiness@gmail.com.