Police officers from the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant are working to improve their relationship with the community.

Deputy Inspector Winston Faison and Officer Priscilla Hardin, who's also an ordained minister, held a "Unity in the Community" event. They gathered with religious leaders and neighbors in the community and discussed topics that included emergency action plans and bettering the relationship between officers and the people they serve.

Police say they will continue the event in hopes that it grows to other precincts in the borough and around the city.

"We cannot protect anyone that don't trust us; we have to work together," Faison says. "There is no crime that gets solved without the community."

Faison adds that he has three rules to being a successful police officer in the community: safety, treating people in the community as if you live there and having fun.