Pacoima : Clergy Discuss Local Issues With Police

San Fernando Valley clergy met with top brass from the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday to discuss issues of race and community-police relations.

“The main topics were things like respect and building relationships,” said the Rev. Dudley Chatman, president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, which sponsored the meeting in Pacoima.

About 25 religious leaders of different faiths showed up for the two-hour meeting, which Chatman said was the first of its kind between Valley clergy and high-level police administrators such as Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy.

“The thrust of the meeting was creating a dialogue with the captains about how people view the Police Department and to re-humanize the relationship between community members and the police,” Chatman said.

LAPD captains were present from the Foothill, West Valley, North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Devonshire divisions. Ideas discussed at the meeting included conducting police “ride alongs” with clergy to provide ministers and rabbis with exposure to the scope of duties performed by patrol officers on the street.

In addition, police administrators suggested that more clergy members join police advisory boards or committees that have sprung up in communities around the Valley.

The two sides also exchanged information on how to contact each other, Chatman said, to keep lines of communication open during tense times, such as the announcement of the O.J. Simpson trial verdict.

“They asked us to make sure they had contacts, within the churches and Valley Interfaith, so we could set up committees to work with them, and they agreed to pass out a list of all the Valley police captains and how to reach them,” he said. “It was a highly successful exchange,” he added.