CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- The City of Carbondale Police Department is taking another step to build trust between law enforcement and the community.
Years before local demonstrators were swept up in the nationwide movement to defund police, the city of Carbondale was already working with the NAACP.
Together the groups brought a list of ten "shared principles" to the table, and signed an affirmation Thursday morning stating police conduct will exist within those guiding lines.
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While both organizations acknowledge an "historical reasons for some mistrust," Carbondale Police Interim Chief Stan Reno says, Thursday's ceremony was about shared principles.
"Having the relationships is critical, and to have that trusting relationship is even more important, and the only way we can do that is if we are able to communicate with one another," says Reno.
At the top of the list, the "Value of Every Person's life." Carbondale's NAACP Branch President Dr. Linda Flowers says, relationships between communities of color and the police have gotten off track as a nation, that adopting the principles is just a step, not the solution.
"We see it a being a positive in the city of Carbondale that we're going to agree, to work together to build trust, which is needed, not just in Carbondale but across the nation," says Flowers.
Dr. Flowers says she's encouraged by Carbondale's leadership, the first community in southern Illinois outside of the East St. Louis areas, to take such steps. She hopes other communities will follow.
In light of the protest last Summer, Interim Chief Reno says goals now are to keep the dialog moving forward.
"And to make (sure) that everyone knows that these ten, shared principals are what we apply to everything that we do," says Reno, adding that they are the guidelines to officers' behavior within the community.
"And they talk with people, they help people," says Reno, "These are the ten things we want them to remember as they're out there and they're doing the work of a police officer --every day."
Chief Reno says what was learned will be used in police training for local officers going forward.
