Kudos to the student interns of the Community Relations Coalition, or CRC, and the officers and staff of the East Lansing Police Department for putting together a superb community-building event at Zap Zone in Lansing. I had the opportunity to participate in this first-of-its-kind laser tag game and found it to be an excellent opportunity for MSU students to build positive relationships with some of the city’s police officers.

All too often someone’s first interaction with the police — whether he or she is a student or not — is a traffic citation or a noise violation. By contrast, the CRC event was a creative way to get beyond preconceptions. I hope the event will become an annual feature on our community’s calendar.