The Independent View: NYC Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids

Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids is an innovative police-community relations model program run by the All Stars Project in partnership with the New York Police Department. The program uses performance, improvisation and conversation to help teenagers and police officers in New York City's low income neighborhoods build respect and improve their relationship.

Cops and Kids began in 2006, at a moment when the relationship between inner-city youth and the police, while never easy, was especially tense following the shooting of Sean Bell, a young Black man in Queens.

The program was founded by Dr. Lenora Fulani, a developmental psychologist, community activist and co-founder of the All Stars Project, who was eager to change the culture of mistrust between young people in our communities and the officers who police those communities.

As she explains, "The two hardest things to be in this city are being a police officer and being a Black and Latino kid. My interest is in helping each to see each other as a human being. That might be useful in the middle of a tense situation one day." Cops and Kids uses the ASP's innovative performance approach to create a new relationship between police officers and young people of color from New York's poor communities, a relationship that is all too often filled with mutual distrust, animosity and stereotypical attitudes about the 'other'.

Since the program's inception, Dr. Fulani has led over 100 workshops involving thousands of youth and police officers.

During the workshops, cops and kids play theater games and create improvisational performances together, thereby creating an environment for having honest and difficult dialogues. In addition, thousands more community members and police officers have participated in Demonstration Workshop performances all over the city which have broadened and deepened the impact of Cops and Kids in the NYPD and across New York City communities.