By Judayah Murray | October 19, 2018

While Fortnite characters, Spiderman look-alikes and unicorns will definitely be found ringing doorbells and begging for candy on the final night of October 2018, it’s less likely that a 3-foot policeman will be amongst the sugar-thirsty canvassers. Officers haven’t been a top halloween costume amongst children in years, which makes complete sense in a neighborhood like Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

On October 10, the NeighborhoodStat team identified Police-Community Relations as being one of the top three issues at the Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses in Fort, Greene Brooklyn. The diagnosis? Violent crime, domestic violence and shootings are down at the public housing this year, but the tensions and mistrust of the police as reported by the youth and the adults who live there remain high. And the prescription? A dance for children under the age of 13.

PO Desmond John and PO Ryan Boccard, the Neighborhood Coordination Officers, NCOs, from the Ingersoll NeighborhoodStat team revealed plans that night to coordinate a police-community dance for children under the age of 13 to improve police-community relations.

“I understand the process of wanting to build the relationship from young, but I don’t think that it’s ideal. Because at 13, 12, 11 and under for the most part, their narrative is ‘You’re an officer, you’re here to help,’ unless someone in their home is poisoning that narrative,” says Tyhiem Floyd, an Ingersoll resident, “The demographic they should be going for is the 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 year olds–those who are worried about their encounters with policemen.

Those are the ones who have trust issues, that’s where it happens at. So if they were doing the party for teenagers, I think that’s good. But I think they’re playing it safe. There’s no real work being done in that.”

The NYPD has a trending history of seeking ways to improve its relationship and reputation with its surrounding community. In fact, National Night Out Against Crime is one of the most famous events held in August in which New York City’s officers are able to connect with constituents through activities like karaoke, an open cookout and more. 2018 was reported as having the largest attendance in the last 15 years.

“If you didn’t know any officers, and then you see them at that event and we have a good conversation, then we’re able to talk about crime and different things to help bridge the gap. We definitely get a lot of good feedback after events like that,” says Officer Kenneth Wallen of Community Affairs at the 88th Precinct.

Besides the annually planned events, the NYPD is quite infamous for making it a point to ‘mend community relations’ after a killing or mishandling of a black citizen on the fault of the NYPD goes viral. In July of 2016, it was the hashtag #ChessWithCops that just so happened to coincide with the second anniversary of the murder of Eric Garner. A May 2015 video of cops playing a pick up game with black teens in the neighborhood went viral just days after a few fellow officers had been caught attempting to illegally arrest a citizen who was lawfully filming them, and just a week after Sandra Bland was found hanging in Texas jail cell. And who could forget the famous NBC story of an NYPD officer in a friendly snowball fight with a group of black children amidst #BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter phenomenon. It could all very well be a coincidence, but it’s enough to make people question the authenticity.

Paul Butler, the author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men, has researched the psychology of the experience of black men when they’re policed so heavily for years now.

“I am skeptical of projects that try to make the police seem friendly and non-threatening because too often their work is unfriendly and threatening toward people of color,” he says, “They shouldn’t work to try to change perceptions, but rather they should change police culture and conduct. Rather than make snow angels with a little black girl, it’s better for them to work toward not arresting the little girl’s mother or father for a drug crime for which they wouldn’t arrest a white person.

When other government agencies, like the DMV, experience customer service problems, they don’t try to change the perceptions of the customers. They change their own provision of services. The police should follow suit.”

When asked about the long term viability of these feel-good events and whether or not the events were merely coincidental, the 88th Precinct declined to comment.

“All of this is not to say these community events are not helpful or needed,” says NYU Professor Crystal A. Clarke, project leader of Understanding the reactions of Black Male Youth to Police.

“It is to say that we need to be able to completely change the narratives and experiences of black people with the police where these community events far outnumber and ultimately eradicate the number of black people being murdered by the police,” she says, “Until then, I think these community events are not enough to get a whole people to forget or forgive the atrocities inflicted on them by the hands of the police for decades, some would argue centuries. While it may be the right direction, we certainly have not arrived.”