More than 30 students from Jamesville-DeWitt high school gathered after school on Thursday, May 7, to listen to and speak with Investigator Randy Andrews from the DeWitt Police Department about how to properly handle interactions with police officers.

Andrews talked about how the perception of police officers in the media has been negative lately, referring to the recent incidents in Baltimore and Ferguson.

“The town of DeWitt and the city of Syracuse are just one small incident away from having a situation like that,” Andrews said.

Topics of discussion included what to do if an officer approaches you, how to handle being pulled over, what to do if you feel you were mistreated by an officer, racial profiling, officer worn body cameras and underage drinking.

“We want you to understand we don’t make the rules, but we’re here to enforce them for the safety of everyone,” Andrews told students. “There are some officers who give a bad perception of our group as a whole, but I want you to know the majority of us are there to help.”

Students were able to ask questions and engage in conversations with Andrews, who stressed that perceptions of both sides of police and citizen interactions needs to be represented clearly and accurately, which has been a problem in society lately.

“It’s been an ‘us against them’ mentality lately and that’s not the way it should be,” Andrews said.

J-D senior A.J. Suslovic said he was interested in coming to the event not only to gain extra credit for a class, but also to engage in conversations with a police officer to get their view of recent events going on in the country.

“I have been following and thinking a lot about these incidents and I wanted to get a police perspective to try to see things in a different way,” Suslovic said.

Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].