Norwich — Asked by members of the Norwich NAACP youth council how youths could become more involved in improving relations between the police and the community, police Chief Patrick Daley told them to do more of what they did Thursday evening.

Members of the NAACP Robertsine Duncan Youth Council hosted an hourlong forum Thursday with police and city leaders that started with prepared questions and progressed to a frank discussion about the distrust of police felt by some youths of color.

“Getting a conversation at a certain age about how to handle a situation when the police approach you because of something like the color of your skin,” youth council member Joceline Rodrigues said. “We’re taught, hands on the wheel, or on the dash, don’t reach for anything, somehow stand your ground, but somehow be more submissive to protect yourself.”

Rodrigues asked Sgt. Nicholas Rankin, head of the Norwich community policing unit, how police can help young children, who view police as people “to be scared of, that one wrong phrase could be your last phrase.”

Rankin said both parties need to understand each other better. The officer approaching the vehicle should arrive with a greeting and an explanation, not an immediate confrontation. Explain why the person was pulled over, and defuse the notion that the officer is going to be “a total jerk.”

And the officer hopes the civilian understands the officer’s need for caution.

“We do kind of want to see people’s hands,” he said. “We’re shown video after video, or we’ve seen instance after instance of truly aggressive people in the car, and the only thing we know when we pull over a car until we get to the window is, ‘this is a person who violated this set of laws, and I don’t know what their intentions are.’”

Rankin said police are working on a new education program for city youths that will include “model” motor vehicle stops and tips for both parties.

Norwich police and dozens of residents have been working since spring to improve police community relations. The sessions started after hundreds of people protested police brutality June 2 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis beneath the knee of a police officer. Two boisterous, peaceful marches through downtown ended with a loud verbal confrontation with Daley outside police headquarters.

Daley told the NAACP youth at Thursday’s forum, at Slater Auditorium at Norwich Free Academy, that he saw firsthand that day the problem Norwich police needed to address: Police have lost touch with the youth of the city.

Daley said for generations until several years ago, Norwich DARE officers worked with elementary school students in the drug awareness program. While the efficacy in combating drug abuse was questionable, Daley said the lifelong positive relations that resulted were visible at the protests. Older residents met up with their former DARE officers for chats in the downtown streets, while young adults had no such connections.

That same night, Daley learned the city was approved for a grant to hire six new police officers. He pledged that the officers would be trained to work with young children, including drug awareness, scooter and traffic safety, internet safety, and engaging in games of kickball.

Since the protests, police and community members have been meeting weekly, have taken on neighborhood projects and generated ideas for improving relations. Police host monthly community chats with the public, which Daley vowed would continue, even if only a few people participate.

The police community relations group, now called Rose City United, next plans to produce a podcast explaining its goals and activities, Rankin said.

Crisshaun Nelson-Jackson, a participant in the monthly police community chat group, said the effort’s biggest goal is to help people realize Norwich is doing something to improve police relations and to get past the very stressful year that was 2020. He said many people felt stuck, not knowing how to respond to the crises unfolding.

“Not only is something being done, but they can be a part of it,” Nelson-Jackson said. “I think the biggest thing that we can do for our community is to galvanize them and to provide that inspiration and motivation so they can take the next step and get out of the freeze response.”

He said although the concept is “very new,” people are responding to it very well. Once the pandemic set in, the meetings went online. The first meeting had 12 participants, but 28 attended the second meeting.

“Everyone here is engaged in one way, shape or form,” he said.

Police also started de-escalation training for police, and soon will add training in “procedural justice,” to train officers how to explain to people what to expect, step by step, if they are being arrested.

Daley urged the NFA students not to become complacent and let the incidents from a year ago “get pushed to the back burner.”

"Don’t let this tragedy become forgotten, and just be put in the rearview mirror,” he said. “I think we all are looking for long-term change.”

c.bessette@theday.com