Batten Researcher Brings Police, Students Together to Better Understand Each Other

It looked like a traffic stop, except for the camera crew. University of Virginia Police and a Charlottesville Police officer pulled over a black Scion sport utility vehicle carrying students on University Avenue, under the watchful eye of a Light House Studio film crew and student volunteers, who recorded the choreographed event. The mini-movie is part of the Youth, Blue & U Engagement Project, created by Brian N. Williams, an associate professor of public policy at UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, against the backdrop of the national Black Lives Matter movement that questions the role of policing in American society, and specifically the relationships between police and people of color.