With only a few days left on the job, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Saturday was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Anointed By God Seminary at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, reported The Daily News.
The clergy task force, which formed in 2010, began working closely with the police department in helping to target crime in the neighborhood through approaches such as town hall meetings, mediation sessions between gang members and the highly successful gun buy-back program, reported The Daily News.
Over the last three years, the number of murders in Brooklyn North dropped by 35 percent, and the number of shootings fell by 30 percent. The task force recognized Kelly and his approach in approving community relations for much of that success.
"We collectively devised a plan to intercede with young people, to get them off the path of violence to a path of nurturing," Kelly said following the event. "We also focused on working with grandmothers, because grandmothers are an important force in this community."
Kelly said the combined approach "played a major role in the reduction of crimes of violence."
