NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell interrogated by kids

NEW YORK - NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell faced a litany of questions Saturday – all coming from kids. The Harlem Children’s Day event was held to help to humanize the police force.

Tykes ages 3-10 interrogated Sewell, with the goal to turn the inquisition into inspiration.

"I would say," one child asked Sewell. "How do you protect the community so that there’s no violence?" 

The Harlem Children’s Day event was held to help to humanize the police force.

Saddled with peer pressure, gangs and social media, children in New York City are falling victim to criminal activity and violence, with news of a shooting or stabbing near a school campus becoming more common. 

In less than a year, four students have been killed outside city schools, an uptick in under-age violence prompting the NYPD to station more police officers outside schools.  

Just earlier this month, two students and a security guard were shot outside Williamsburg Charter High School in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

"When you come to events like this, I think kids see that I don’t just have to follow what my friends are doing," said Gregory Green, NYPD Community Affairs.

The Harlem Children’s Day event was held to help to humanize the police force.

Anti-gun organization Harlem Mothers & Fathers S.A.V.E. is working to expose a younger generation to the positives of their neighborhood police force. 

Community policing can help, but founder Jackie Rowe-Adams said preventing juvenile violence is going to take a partnership that includes parents who are committed to participating in their kids lives.  

"Parents, search their book bags, look under their mattress, keep your kids engaged," Rowe-Adams said.