NYPD officers in the Bronx are reaching out to local students to discuss their concerns regarding recent tensions between the community and police.
Officers from the 42nd Precinct stopped by the Bronx Preparatory Charter School in Claremont for an open discussion about racial profiling and police-involved deaths, including those of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.
As part of the forum, students role-played as police officers to attain a sense of what the NYPD experiences on a daily basis. The officers played the roles of the teenage students in different real-world scenarios.
Students who participated say the experience helped them learn a little more about the men in uniform.
Bronx Prep is one of many schools across New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. that will be hosting police visits throughout the year. Officials say the goal of the visits is to open up a dialogue between students and officers that will go toward building a positive relationship between them.