Dallas police are trying to plant the seeds right now that will help them fight crime in the future.
Dallas police invited 900 children to hang out with them Tuesday in a relaxed environment rather than a crime scene. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said he hopes the kids will remember such good impressions if they ever do meet at a crime scene.
"If they only have a negative opinion of us, they're going to shy away from us and make it more difficult to prevent and solve crime in our neighborhood," Brown said.
Dallas police's Youth Forum attendee Kavion Majors, 12, said he wanted to give police the benefit of the doubt.
"My choice was to come here and listen to what the police had to say," he said. "They're just here to protect us."
Brown said the goal of the Youth Forum was to help the kids to see that not all police officers are like the ones who have received bad publicity recently.
"What we want to do is not have the mistakes we make define the whole profession," Brown said.
