BURNSVILLE, Minn. — The relationship between police officers and the communities they serve is broken in a lot of places. A Burnsville High School student is trying to bridge that gap by hosting a discussion Wednesday night.
Trevor Dostal has known for a while that he wants to pursue a career in law enforcement.
"I've always kind of wanted to help people. I've always had that mindset of other people first."
As part of a class project, Dostal started the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages "Positive Police Action."
The pages highlight the good that's happening in law enforcement.
"Police officers do good on a daily basis. There's bad that happens, it's unfortunate. The bad police officers and the good police officers that make bad mistakes are the ones that make the media, and they're the ones that we hear about. The majority of the 800,000 officers across the country and 11,000 in Minnesota go out there every single day. All they want to do is help people and protect people," said Dostal.
Wednesday night, Dostal is hosting a community discussion from 5:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Burnsville High School.
He said that officers from Burnsville, Eagan, Savage and Dakota County will be there.
People are invited to talk with officers about their concerns and learn what it's like to have a job in law enforcement.
Dostal asks people attending to come with an open mind.
"When people have the opportunity to sit with police officers one-on-one in a situation where they're not on a traffic stop or they're not being stopped, then I think it opens up a new pathway to ask these questions and address these concerns. And hopefully understand what police officers do on a daily basis. Not only that, but their mindset and what they go through," said Dostal.