'A huge step forward': Rochester program awarded funding for police liaison position

Over the past 12 years, Rev. Andre Crockett has spent much of his time coaching children of color in Rochester to become better athletes and students, through his nonprofit Sports Mentorship Academy. While he has no plans of stopping, 2021 will still mark a new chapter for SMA, as a grant from Mayo Clinic will allow Crockett and company to unveil a ‘community liaison’ position designed to work with Rochester’s police force.

Crockett says SMA received roughly $15,000 from Mayo — part of a larger $70,000 commitment to six local nonprofits, all in an effort to advance racial equity. Those funds will kick-start the pilot program, designed to “build trust and decrease tension” between the Rochester Police Department and Rochester’s Black community.

Crockett said the idea for the position came to him after watching the events unfold in Minneapolis after the police murder of George Floyd last summer, and subsequently taking time to study what the city of Rochester needed to avoid a similar situation from playing out.

“I recognized that there was a huge gap in our community between people of color and the Rochester Police Department,” said Crockett. “Racial tension is so vivid and tense, you see it across the country — to have somebody naturally bridge the gap between those communities, I don’t think it would just come about.”

In his eyes, many encounters between officers and Black people become tense because both people are perpetually in “survival mindsets,” always fearful of what’s coming next. If successful, the liaison will work with RPD to train officers from getting to that position.

“We have to teach the officer how to de-escalate the situation, because they hold the power,” said Crockett. “To officers: you have the power, you have the responsibility to handle and de-escalate tense situations. We want to be able to help teach officers to de-escalate the situation, in their encounters with Black residents.” 

While more funding is needed to successfully realize the dream of creating a full-time community liaison, Crockett says the Mayo Clinic grant will be enough to get the position off the ground for now. The goal is to turn the pilot program into a regular, salaried position some time in the near future. 

“This is a start,” said Crockett. “Not to say that this is an answer to everything, but it’s a huge step forward.”

The History of SMA

The community liaison position will become the newest wing of Sports Mentorship Academy, a nonprofit that Crockett estimates has served over 5,000 kids in Rochester, Winona, Minn., La Crosse, Wis. and Baltimore — Crockett’s hometown — since its inception in 2009. 

While SMA’s programming centers around bringing underserved 10-14 year-olds together on football, basketball and baseball teams and teaching them the fundamentals of the game, Crockett says the main goal is not to win. Rather, it’s about teaching good study habits to children and encouraging them to go to college — especially for potential first-generation college students.

“We’re not a sports program, we’re an education program,” said Crockett. “Sports alone will not do what we want this program to accomplish. I know a lot of young athletes that don’t have many — if any — goals past when the ball stops bouncing. So I wanted to help them find a healthy balance between sports and academics.”

Every SMA student is required to spend as much time studying on their own time as they spend in the classroom, with a dedicated study area on RCTC’s campus. Over 300 SMA graduates have gone on to get a degree — most of them first-generation graduates. 

The program has succeeded, Crockett says, because fellow SMA team members hold each other accountable on and off the field — and everybody is more successful as a result. That’s why the liaison position will be under the umbrella of SMA, rather than Crockett’s other project Barbershop and Social Services, he adds: mutual respect and clear communication — the liaison’s main goal — would be a huge boost to improving relations between police officers and Rochester’s Black population.

“Mandela said it best — ‘sport can change the world,’” said Crockett. “We’re taking the best concepts from certain sports and implementing them in every aspect of life, because sports have a way of bringing everybody together. It’s about building a team and having mutual respect for your peers, and that’s the ideals we want to bring to this new position.”

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.