NYPD officers, community members come together: 'Protect, Serve, and Understand’

FORT GREENE, Brooklyn (PIX 11) — The Irondale Ensemble Project is marking their 10th anniversary of its transformative program, ‘To Protect, Serve, and Understand.’

For 10 weeks, a group of NYPD officers and community members came together to engage in acting, singing, and tough conversations — all with the goal of bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community. 

Terry Greiss said he started the program after the death of Eric Garner. 

“You go through a lot of stages of grief, anger, and you get to a numbness, and I started looking at it like it was a piece of theatre,” Greiss said. 

He noted that stronger communication between Eric Garner and the officer might have led to a different outcome, saying, “They’re not talking to each other. They’re not communicating. There’s so many obvious cues that are being given and they’re ignoring them all.”

Etoy Hairston joined the ensemble after having had negative experiences with law enforcement. She described the workshop as therapeutic, allowing her to unpack her feelings and better understand the NYPD.

“I come from a neighborhood where we don’t have too much of a good relationship with police officers and just to be able to come together and to be able to understand them it was a great experience for me,” she said. 

Officer Stephen Barnes, in his second year participating in the show, is hoping to continue building trust, easing tensions, and fostering stronger connections with the community he serves. 

“This teaches a lot of cops to have more patience with the community,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t have the chance to really take a step back, breathe, relax; but this program teaches us cops to do that. Teaches us to have better communication skills with people in need. People that are calling 911 for us.”

Through weeks of rehearsing that lead up to public performances, organizers are hoping the takeaway is the belief that meaningful change starts with honest dialogue and shared experiences. Greiss highlighted the progress made over the years, sharing a story of an officer successfully de-escalating a situation.

“He said I just want you to know that I had a protestor who was in my face, and she was tearing me a new one, and in the old days, I would’ve reacted, but what I did this time was I could hear beneath the rant. So, I heard what she really was concerned about,” Greiss said. The workshop concludes with its final show on Saturday night at 7:30.