Recent tragedies over the last few months have revealed an unsettling feeling of distrust between the police and the people.
Most notably, during the summer, Baton Rouge experienced several police-related tragedies that caused national uproar.
Following these mass tragedies, sparks have flown on Twitter. Hashtags began to burn through society. #BlueLivesMatter, #BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter have reverberated through social media, each highlighting the key changes that should take place in this country.

Junior Shania Larkin is concerned about recent police brutality incidents. As an African American, she said, “it’s hard to really adapt to a society when you’re constantly looked at as a criminal.”

She recalls being stopped by police officers and being wrongly associated with a robbery during seventh grade.

“You are basically labeling me as a person who is doing something bad,” Larkin said.

But as of 2015, Stockton has been known for being one of six pilot cities throughout the nation that have implemented researching best practices for community policing.

Stockton Police Department, according to its Public Information Officer Joe Silva, is one of the few departments that train officers “on the historical perspective of law enforcement and why certain groups have this certain way that they believe law enforcement officers have acted over the years.”

Silva notes that it’s important for police officers to learn the historical perspective that certain groups hold towards law enforcement.

“If you just have one police officer that tarnishes this badge it makes it tough for all of us in law enforcement because one bad apple spoils the whole bunch and that’s what we don’t want,” Silva said. “We don’t want those types of officers in our profession.”

Sophomore Blanca Arias, who aspires to be a police officer, notes that “a few (officers) can mess it up for the rest of the (force). While police officers are helping out doing what they love, they are also being affected by the actions of those few. It’s unfair.”

Yet she hopes to combat this current stigma of being a police officer by being “as positive as I can be and help try to get that stereotype out of here. So If I do become one, yeah people are going to hate, but I’m going to have to not let that hate define who I am.”

In order to deal with the hateful sentiments from the community, Chief of Police Eric Jones set up a Community Advisory Board, a group of 24 citizens that consults with the police department about community issues. “Some are educators, nonprofit, neighborhood watchmen,” Silva said. “They meet monthly to talk about this very issue.”

Stockton PD has also integrated a program used in some cities in Southern California known as “Coffee with the Police.”

On their Facebook page, Stockton PD encourages citizens to come out monthly and have coffee with them. “It’s basically just getting police officers out there and inviting the citizens and community members to come out there and have an informal conversation about what’s going on at those neighborhoods,” Silva said.

Larkin hopes that events like these increase throughout the city.

“I hope it’s something that they’re willing to expand,” Larkin said, “because a lot of these children are growing up fearing the police. If the police department really works in growing a relationship with these younger black kids, they can grow up to have a better perspective.”

The Public Safety Academy also aims at helping Stockton’s community by providing homegrown cadets that not only have developed character skills but are connected to their community.

“We are forming a partnership with our community partners in order to help get our kids on the right track and create a foundation within our PSA cadets,” said Megan Russo, principal of the Public Safety Academy. “So as they go through their years of school they’re people that are becoming a big part of our community and they have that connection to the law enforcement.”

For Larkin, having the PSA located at Stagg exposes these cadets to a more diverse environment. Silva notes that they want “our police force to mirror our community makeup. We want to have Stockton Police officers that know this community inside and out.”

“I like that,” Larkin said. “Now that I hear that they are adapting into our community and growing into that, I like that.”