An incident involving youth and the police that could have escalated outside of the Allapattah Library prompted the demand for this community engagement. The library is a safe space for conducting conversations that matter and to address community social issues. Positive police activities allow for open dialogue on topics such as distrust of police officers (especially in immigrant communities from places with authoritarian or corrupt police forces) or the use of excessive force by those in positions of authority.

The library becomes a mediation space for important discussions, developing relationships and community-building. The Craft with a Cop program offers an informal environment where the tweens and young adult community work side-by-side with the police to complete a collaborative activity or to play. Mediating difficult conversations with an activity (such as a craft, games or other form of play and light refreshments) created a social situation resulting in high participation numbers.

The Allapattah Library created opportunities for collaboration in conducting joint programming with the outreach department of law enforcement. The library and police have forged a positive relationship extending beyond the program to include a holiday toy give-away from a law enforcement association. Relationships between the youth and officers are developing, with one tween exclaiming that he “did not know that the police could even be nice!” Over 300 participants have engaged in the four resultant events since 2017.