College Park Area Police Build Relationships Through Community Basketball Game

Local police will face off against local teenagers in a friendly game of basketball next Friday in an effort to build better relationships with the community.

On December 7 at 7:30 p.m., Chief of Police David Mitchell and other officers of both the University of Maryland Police Department and Prince George’s County Police Department will play at the College Park Community Center in the first of a series of games planned for the near future.

“The whole purpose of this game is just to make sure we can start building trust and relationships,” Director of Community Engagement at the University of Maryland Gloria Aparicio Blackwell said.

The game is the first in a monthly series of games designed to bring police officers and local teenagers closer together. According to Blackwell, the university is encouraging students to get involved.

“We might be doing this once a month and trying to see during the semester if students from the university will participate as well,” Blackwell said.

The event was brought on through a partnership between the University of Maryland Office of Community Engagement, the Embry Center for Family Life, the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the City of College Park.