Police, Pastors Work to Build Community Relationships

Inside the P.C. Cobb Field House in Dallas, pastors and police teamed up to win a battle that has little to do with the game at hand.

The “Together We Ball” basketball event by Project Unity was designed to build relationships and trust between police departments and the community.

“We think this is very important that the community work together with our law enforcement team,” said Concord Church Senior Pastor Bryan Carter. “We think in light of everything that’s happened in our society and community across the nation that we can work on the same team, that we can come together and that’s what this is really all about.”

The event, held on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked a national conversation about police mistrust, included local leaders such as State Rep. Eric Johnson.

“This is vitally important because we begin to build on goodwill and fellowship,” said Andy Stoker, Senior Minister at First United Methodist Church Dallas. “Certainly our hearts hurt in a climate like ours currently, but it’s going to take every last one of us to find way to connect.”

Some church leaders and officers, intermingled on teams, took to the court, with others with the Dallas Police Department handed out information on police programs.

This is not the first police engagement event in Dallas. The department regularly hosts ‘Coffee with Cops’ in various neighborhoods and recently held an event for hundreds of youth called “Let’s Talk”.