Brooklyn residents banded together Sunday to ensure the borough had a safe Memorial Day weekend by practicing community policing and holding each other accountable.

Pastor Louis Straker says he wants to make sure Brooklyn has a safe holiday by partnering with other community organizations to stand together and help police the community.

"We're a liaison between the community and the police officers, so that they don't have to come in and bring heavy handed law enforcement,” Straker says. “We're there if the police need us to speak to the community and get some things under control.”

The group, which was named the "God Squad,” was made up of Straker’s clergy and local organizations, including Mothers for Safe Cities and Churches United to Save and Heal.

After seeing an uptick of violence in the past months, Straker believes that showing the community churches are present with resources available they can combat gun violence.

“One of the things that we're looking to do with our clergy councils is just to be out in those hot areas, the areas that we know that there's huge gang activity, where there's maybe a shooting that has taken place recently. We want to be out there, we want to have a presence,” Straker says.

Straker says the group will wear “God Squad” jackets in bright colors so the community can recognize them if something is wrong.