Using basketball to improve police-community relations and lower gun violence

It may have looked and sounded like an ordinary neighborhood basketball match at Belfield Recreation Center on 21st Street and Chew Avenue. But it was not your typical pickup game.

“This event is the beginning of the end of gun violence. I stand on it,” said Pushing Progress Philly (P3) program director Kareen Brown, who said the tournament represents the change the community has been calling for — more meaningful activities and support.

The Inaugural 3 on 3 Gun Violence Reduction Basketball Tournament in Germantown was the first public effort of P3, a prevention pilot program. A year ago, then-Mayor Jim Kenney launched P3 as one of his anti-violence initiatives. Based on the successful READI Chicago model, the program pairs high-risk young men with a variety of meaningful behavioral supports and economic opportunities. The Nicetown Community Development Corporation handles outreach and engagement, Impact Services provides therapeutic and job support, and EDSI will supply administrative services.

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Jalil Meekins, P3 outreach manager, who grew up playing at the Belfield Recreation Center, said a participant in P3 programming suggested the tournament, but “I wondered what I could do to make it more impactful.” The game on Saturday morning was designed to prevent violence especially among those most at risk.

That is why the players were men aged 18 to 34, the group most at-risk of gun violence. They were predominantly from Germantown, a community severely impacted by gun violence. And they were playing with law enforcement — including police officers from the 35th, 39th and 14th Districts in an effort to start building trust.

“You will see another side of the police department today,” said 35th Police District Capt. Walter Burks, who urged the participants and officers to speak when they passed each other on the street after the tournament was over. “Say ‘How you doing?’ This is big.”

Philadelphia has been devastated by gun violence. In 2023 and 2022, more than 900 people were fatally shot. In 2024, there have been 87 homicides as of April 27 a decrease from this time last year, but still high.

“I read a stat that said 100% of people [in Philadelphia] are affected by gun violence. That’s not normal,” said Meekins, who six years ago lost his 14-year-old son, Muawwiyyah Jalil Meekins, to gun violence. “He was just outside on his bike and he was struck in the neck and [the bullet] came out of his face.”

“I read a stat that said 100% of people (in Philadelphia) are affected by gun violence. That’s not normal.”

Meekins said he gets the passion for his job from the tragedy of his son’s death. “Look at the environment and the effect it has on us. We need to feel more positivity to outweigh the negative,” Meekins said.

Zakariyya Abdur Rahman, president & CEO of the Nicetown Community Development Corporation, has lost two sons to gun violence, one in 2009 and another in 2017. He is convinced that fun and games can go where law and order can’t.

“We need to come together in a playful way in order to get to the serious thing, which is protecting our communities. We will get a knowledge of each other by playing with each other. Stripped of the uniforms and we will further see each other as human beings,” Abdur Rahman said.

“We need to come together in a playful way in order to get to the serious thing, which is protecting our communities.”

According to the city’s 100 Shootings Review Committee Report, almost every perpetrator of gun violence interacted with human services or law enforcement agencies when they were under the age of 18. On average, the interactions happened 11.5 years before a shooting occurred.

P3 sees this time between first interaction and possible shooting as an opportunity to develop relationships.

A month ago, Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel formed the Community Partnerships Bureau (CPB) and promoted former 35th Police District Captain Myesha Massy to the newly elevated deputy commissioner post.

“We have to get our roots into the ground, building relationships and partnerships,” Bethel said during his budget testimony.

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Next year, Meekins would like to take the tournament out of the 19144 zip code and run it citywide.

Listening to the sound of a good time wafting out of gym, he said, “This is amazing. It’s exceeding my expectations.”