NORFOLK, Va. — The nation is demanding change with police reform. Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone opened up Wednesday night about how his department is working to make that happen.
He joined Calvary Revival Church for a community forum.
“The community needs to see proactive change,” said Bishop Courtney McBath, who is helping the community peel back the curtain with Norfolk Police.
Every three months he meets with Chief Boone to unleash their questions and find out how reform is underway.
"The idea is to bring the community into the fold," Chief Boone said.
Boone said they are actively building a citizen review board. Out of 18,000 police departments in the U.S. he said there are only 160 established boards.
“The discipline will remain with me, with respect to the recommendation,” Chief Boone said about the board’s decisions.
He added it’s gotten harder to recruit people of color. It’s a barrier McBath hopes the chats can shed a light on.
“Communities of color will be able to see more and more officers of color in those communities,” McBath said. “And I think that begins to destroy some of the fears, well-grounded fears, people have.”
Boone believes a big key to reform and crime reduction are community partnerships.
"They haven’t been able to do it by themselves," said Teens with a Purpose Director Diedre Love. “We haven’t been able to do it by ourselves.”
Teens with a Purpose is one of those partners. Love said her organization’s resources can add to the solution, but others need to join in.
“It doesn’t work unless the community is the leader, the systems are the partners, and that you are listening to what the community says and working right beside them,” Love said.
This is just the second community chat, but McBath hopes the ideas take shape, soon.
“Everything begins out of a relationship and then out of that I think real action comes,” McBath said. “So, we are looking forward to what happens in the days ahead.”
Chief Boone said he requires his officers to do some sort of community engagement in order for promotion. He said most officers want to reach out, they just don’t know how to.
The church will hold another chat in three months.