CHARLOTTE, N.C. — About a dozen children from the Terrybrook neighborhood got to know several soon-to-be Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers on Wednesday.
The goal was to build better police relationships with that community. The event was a partnership with The Terrybrook Project and Eastway Division Officer Shannon Finis, who has been doing community outreach work in the Terrybrook community for the last few years.
IMAGES: CMPD forges relationships with Terrybrook community
On Wednesday, the children warmed up to the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department recruits over hot dogs and hamburgers.
"Being in police work, you can't do that without the trust of the community," recruit Daniel Moore said.
"A lot of these kids don't have role models," CMPD Capt. Demetria Faulkner-Welch said. "A lot of the kids have only seen kids in an enforcement effort."
Terrybrook is where children are more used to seeing police arrest people or respond to crimes, Faulkner-Welch said.
Perceptions about police are formed at a young age, which is why police are bridging gaps.
"The older they get the harder, it is to break that impression so that's what we're trying to do -- foster a good impression," Moore said.
The children got a chance to ride in a SWAT vehicle, see how a bomb squad robot works and play games with the police recruits.
They even got to go back to school shopping together.
CMPD officials said they started efforts to forge better community relationships with the Terrybrook community more than year-and-a-half ago.
They said efforts like this back-to-school get together with the children in the community help.
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