Community Policing and Music for a Better City
Michael Bloom, a Fargo, North Dakota-based police officer and rapper, has partnered with Alabama-based rap artist DPB on two music videos that feature the Fargo community and showcase what community policing and creativity can achieve.
ArtPlace reports the videos have received thousands of views on YouTube and "dovetail with other Fargo Police Department initiatives, including “It’s Time” school assemblies where students and teachers are invited to dance, and a summer camp where kids use music and other creative activities to help them work through their problems."
In his interview with ArtPlace, Bloom discussed what it meant to be one of three “Community Trust Officers” (CTOs) in the Fargo Police Department.
We got a grant through the Department of Justice and got this CTO position. The grant had a variety of focuses, but a lot of it had to do with reaching low-income youth who might have grown up in a community where law enforcement wasn’t trusted. So we are working to build trust with youth around the region.
Image: Still image / YouTube “It’s Time" video