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Center Of Praise Hosts Conversation About Improving Community Relations With Police

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Sacramento's Center of Praise Ministries opened its doors Sunday morning to law enforcement on a day it chose to "Honor the Blue."

The three services Sunday morning aimed to honor officers sworn to protect Sacramento communities and to help dispel fears and improve trust between minority communities and police.

The Center invited law enforcement officers from Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento County Sheriff's office to be on hand for a conversation and to take questions from the congregation. This follows a week of deadly incidents, including the police shootings in Dallas, where a dozen officers were fired upon and five killed, and other fatal events around the country, where black men were killed by law enforcement.

Hundreds of people were in attendance in the main sanctuary and in an annex area to listen to the forum. The conversation centered around how to build mutual respect between the police officers and minorities locally.

Pastor Joseph Sissac, from the Center of Praise Ministries, hopes to improve dialogue, saying, "The community can't think that the police are their enemy. If we continue with that mindset, it's going to feed into the fear and I feel it will eventually cause an incident and what we want to do is prevent it."

Among law enforcement in attendance, Sacramento Deputy Police Chief Mike Bray, who said, "Law enforcement is sometimes looked at as an occupying force and we don't want to be that way. We're people too. We live and work in the community and engage in open dialogue with the communities we serve."

Participants in the forum asked for more diversity in law enforcement as a way to bridge the gulf and officers agreed that they can work more on hiring minorities on their forces.

Both the pastor and officers who attended the services said they would work on participating in more events like this on in the future.

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