Author Seeks To Teach Kids About Interacting With Police

CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you could take a serious situation and turn it into a lesson for students, would you? That's exactly what one man is doing, using his experiences with traffic stops to help young men.

A group of grade school students from Betty Shabazz International Charter School got a valuable lesson on interacting with the police.

"How many of you, if you were on the playground playing and minding your own business and doing nothing wrong, if a police car drove over, how many of you would run?" author and motivational speaker Dwayne Bryant asked the students.

They all said they'd run.

After Bryant recently dealt with a police stop himself, he knew that was a problem.

"Your first natural response is to run. Your first reaction or response makes the police think you've done something wrong. Do you see why it's not a good thing to do?" Bryant said.

He came up with a method to show young people what to do if they're pulled over or approached by the police.

It's called "The Stop."

Using his experience, and the knowledge of police officers, Bryant has been teaching young men a process to help them see the right and wrong paths they can take.

Bryant hopes to build a foundation of trust that extends beyond community and police relations.

"The first thing we must do is begin to operate in a level of respect. Not just for police officers, but for our teachers, for our parents, for any level of authority; and honestly, I think that's missing in our society right now with young people," he said.

You can find out more about the book and the workshops at dwaynebryant.com