Uniondale resident wants to educate children about diversity and police

Adrian Goodwin is on a mission to educate children about police work in a community while teaching them about diversity. The Uniondale resident wrote the book on the subject.

“Twins in The City: Let’s Learn About Police Officers,” is a children’s book that follows the story of a family’s outing to New York City, where twins Madison and Mia see various kinds of police officers throughout the day and learn about each position's responsibilities and functions.

Goodwin has served 18 years with the New York City police department, and as a Black woman officer, diversity has become her area of expertise.

The inspiration for her book stemmed from a question raised by her own twins, who are also named Madison and Mia and are now 8. They asked their mom what it is exactly that police officers do, besides just “catching the bad guys,” a question she says many children the same age have.

Goodwin, also an adjunct professor at John Jay University, drew further inspiration for the book from interactions with her college students. Many of them shared that they had never met a woman police officer before, let alone a Black female detective and hostage negotiator, which is also part of Goodwin’s skill set.

Hearing that, Goodwin felt that she could make a difference by writing a book that would allow young readers to see themselves in a career they might not have envisioned. She stressed the importance of fair media representation, and the need for children of diverse backgrounds to be able to see themselves in every kind of profession, especially when they are young.

“I think that it is important to continue to diversify law enforcement, and I hope this book is going to open up that dialogue and help foster a healthier community within,” Goodwin said.

Book illustrator Bria Monét DuBose aimed to create images that expedited the children’s understanding of the book.

“My goal for the illustrations was to make them palatable enough for kids to understand and digest the information,” she said. “The police have a job to do, and just like us, they do their best.”

Through her drawings, Dubose said she hopes to educate children about the different responsibilities of the police and work toward making the world a more inclusive and cohesive place for future generations.

Since the book release a month ago, Goodwin said the response has been positive.

“I have received a lot of great feedback online and from educators and parents,” mainly for the book’s ability to teach children about the responsibilities of police officers in a simple way,” she said.

The book has critics, such as Suffolk County preschool teacher Jacqueline Phillips, who thinks the book shied away from the nuanced complexities of police-community interactions, particularly within racially diverse neighborhoods.

“I appreciate the representation and I see what Goodwin was trying to do, but I think it missed the mark,” Phillips said.

She acknowledged that the book is informative, but thought it could have done more to articulate how to actually interact with police in a way that children would understand.

“This book is not to say that these things don't exist within law enforcement, or that we don't have work to do,” Goodwin said. “This book is more just to educate and inform little readers about the possibilities of one day becoming a police officer, and what that means.”

Goodwin says her work surrounding education and community relationship-building won’t end with this book. Next, she is focusing on partnering with schools and libraries to host programs on topics such as character building, communication skills, and community initiatives.

“Twins in the City” will be available at the Uniondale Public Library next month. The library will host Goodwin on July 26 where she will read her book during a story hour, and answer questions from the children about the types of police work carried out by officers in every police department.

“In the past few years I have started booking local authors and adding their work to our local author’s collection,” the library’s Head of Children’s Service Christina Hirsch wrote in an email. “We also have a collection of books and programs that promote storytelling, writing and publishing for our community to participate in.”

“Twins in The City: Let’s Learn About Police Officers” can be purchased online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Blue House Publishing.