Houston Workshop Teaches Minorities How to Interact with the Police

Among the lessons learned from the developments of recent months in Ferguson, Mo., is the need for law enforcement and the community it serves to engage with one another. It’s a topic we explored on Houston Matters back in August. We discussed how, here in Houston, the Teen and Police Service or TAPS Academy seeks to connect at-risk teens with police officers to form positive relationships.

But the onus isn’t just on law enforcement to bridge potential divides — it’s up to the community at large as well. That’s why 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Houston, a local chapter of a national mentoring and educational service organization, recently held a workshop designed to teach our young African American and Hispanic men how to safely interact with law enforcement.

We hear from Reco Caston, the President of 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Houston about the workshop, called “My Brother’s Keeper — Keeping Our Boys Out of the Criminal Justice Pipeline.” Then we talk with Marlin Suell, Assistant Chief with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, about how law enforcement officials here hope we all respond when we’re stopped by police.