Trawick was alone in his apartment when an officer pushed open the door. He was holding a bread knife and a stick. “Why are you in my home?” he asked. He never got an answer.

Dressed in shiny new uniforms, NYPD recruits filled Harlem's famed Apollo Theater for new sensitivity training begun in the wake of the police killing of Sean Bell.

One highlight of my job as the spokesman and policy director of New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board was the NYPD’s Advancing Community Trust program. Twice a year, the entire graduating class...