PERRY, Ga. — As protests continue across the country and right here at home, Perry Police Chief Steve Lynn says they are already working on how to move forward with what they call a "Trust Initiative."
Perry is just one of seven communities in Georgia participating in the Trust Initiative pilot program.
Lynn says the project is the brainchild of Chief Lou Dekmar from LaGrange, when he was the head of The International Association of Chiefs of Police.
When the project was brought to Lynn by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he jumped at the chance.
He says the project officially started in Perry last August.
"The first step is identifying what are the problems that we face in our particular unique community," says Lynn.
The board has two representatives from the Perry Police Department, two elected officials and four community members, including Fenika Miller.
"The Trust Initiative was designed to address and to heal past racial harm inflicted by law enforcement," says Miller.
Lynn and Miller both say they want to introduce things like record expungements for low-level crimes and community listening sessions with students and civil rights activists.
"The expungement, I think, was a big one because we know that that can be a barrier for employment, for housing, you know, just for people to really fully acclimate themselves back into society," says Miller.
"A lot of our effort will be focused on understanding whatever disconnects there may be between the police and the community," says Lynn. "Part of that is recognizing things that have been done wrong in the past."
She says trust between law enforcement and African Americans is very low across the country.
"There's so many things that we can do. I think the sky is the limit, but I think just beginning the conversation and the acknowledgment that this is something that our community needs," says Miller.
Lynn says they are still in the early stage of the project.
It is a two- to three-year project and he says the goal is to have seven different versions across the seven different communities participating. They will see what works and what doesn't.
"When we’re done with it, it’ll be published and rolled out as a guide for community engagement programs across the membership of the International Chiefs."
He says whatever form it takes, this is the right step forward.
"We’re never at the point where we can’t improve, that we can’t learn lessons, that we can’t re-learn old lessons, so it’s a constant state of evaluation and improvement as far as we’re concerned," says Lynn. "It’s absolutely the right thing to do to make sure that we have an open, transparent, ongoing, honest conversation."
The other communities involved are Thomasville, LaGrange, Dekalb, Covington, Albany and Decatur.
The City of Perry also made this post so citizens can see the other ways the city and the department are moving forward.
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