By Colleen Long
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The police department invited some of its most vocal critics Monday 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.
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,” 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 Monday included such New York Police Department critics as the Rev. Lester Williams, the pastor who was to marry Sean Bell and his fiancee on Nov. 26, 2006, but instead presided over the 23-year-old’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. Two of Bell’s friends were seriously wounded.
When three detectives involved in the shooting were cleared of manslaughter and other charges in April, Bell’s supporters vowed to shut down the city with protests. More than 200 people were arrested last month during demonstrations against the verdicts led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Williams said he welcomed the opportunity to work with the police department, adding that Kelly was “bending over backward” to improve relations and had recently gone to Queens to tour the neighborhood where Bell was shot.
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.
The recruits will graduate July 2 from the police academy. They will spend the next six months working in community affairs and will be required to check in with community leaders and centers.