Did you know the Sacramento Police Department turns to a higher power to try and bridge the gap of mistrust in underserved areas?
"It's a big problem," said Pastor Anthony Sadler of Shiloh Baptist Church. "We've got a generation where some of our young people are caught up in a lifestyle that is so dangerous for themselves, and for the people around them. I think sometimes guys like me at my age were asleep at the wheel, and we didn't do enough earlier on. We are trying to make a difference now."
Sadler is one of the pastors who helped launch the Cops and Clergy Academy.
"We don't claim to be the answer to it all," said Sadler. "We are just trying to do our part to make our city a more peaceful place."
A group of 19 community and faith-based leaders just spent seven weeks in the academy.
"We're building the bridge as we go. We're continuing to evolve," said Sadler. "We're Cops and Clergy 2.0 now. We're spending a lot of time in elementary schools. We started in high school. The overall goal is the same...to bridge the gap in the communication between SAC PD and the community."
The participants do the traditional academy stuff, things like police training simulations. But they also join officers in reaching local students in underserved communities.
"They're excited to see the officers. We take them through a curriculum such as bullying. What do you do if you find a gun? Drug abstinence," said Sadler.
The new academy graduates are being welcomed as what you might call "new agents" on the force.
"They are change agents," said Sadler. "They are to go out and impact our city in a positive manner based on the new knowledge that they have."
"I'm sure they have kids and grandkids and relatives that they could be spending time with, but they chose to come here and expand their experiences so they could better their community," said Police Chief Daniel Hahn. "And we need to do that more and more and more."
Graduate Dion Warrick was in search of those first-hand experiences.
"We only get to see the media side. We only get the media spin. We never actually get the whole world spin to be able to see both sides of the spectrum," said Warrick. "So I wanted to see the cop's side."
In just the past few months, ABC10 has witnessed massive protests sparked by the police shooting of Stephon Clark. He was the unarmed father of two killed by Sacramento Police who thought he had a gun. It turned out to be a cell phone. Demonstrators marched on city hall and demanded changes from those in power.
ABC10 also covered the violent police altercation with Craig Williams who was arrested for leaving his car idling at a South Sacramento 7-11. District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert ultimately declined to file charges.
Most recently, we got newly released body cam video of Brandon Smith who died in police custody. Groups like Black Lives Matter are demanding answers from police, who are promising a thorough investigation.
"I think you have to live under a rock right now if you don't think that there are issues," said Hahn. "Not only in our community, but across the country. And so instead of just living a naive life we want to acknowledge that and do something about it. We don't want to continue like that."
The Cops and Clergy Academy, for example, has expanded to include concerned citizens like Dion, and it's now being called the Community Engagement Academy.
"I understand, not completely, what it takes to be a cop," said Dion. "But I have an understanding of what they go through on a day to day basis."
It's not just a learning experience for Dion and other community participants, but for law enforcement as well.
"When you deal with people of color," said Sadler. "We have our own culture. We have our own ways about us. Where you might think it represents a threat that's just day to day in certain neighborhoods. So it gives an opportunity on both sides...not only to humanize the officers to the community, but to humanize certain segments of the community to the officers as well."
"What Pastor is trying to say is that everybody should experience a Sunday in a Black Baptist Church," said Hahn, with a smile.
All jokes aside, they both feel the Community Engagement Academy is now more important than ever before.
"It really boils down to relationship building," said Sadler. "It's only through relationship building that we go from Chief Hahn and Pastor Sadler to Tony and Daniel. It's only through relationship that we actually get a trust built up so that when things get difficult we still have each other's back."
And they have just graduated 19 change agents who insist this program is working.
“As a person I loved it,” said Dion. "We need this community based program in other cities...not just in Sacramento."
"It’s successful," said Sadler. "But not to a degree where you will see it on a spreadsheet because our most successful stats are prevention of the incidents that would have happened had we not intervened at some point in that person's life. How do you put that on a stat sheet?"