HAMMOND -
It's going to take communication, according to Lieutenant Steve Kellogg, Public Information Officer for the Hammond Police Department, to rebuild a trusting and respectful relationship between the black community and police officers.
"It's all about communication. It really is. We have to find a way to have better communication between all of us," Kellogg says. "We need to sit down and we need to have these tough conversations and figure out what we can do better to mend these relationships because obviously this is something that's not going to go away without some hard work."
While he understands the relationship won't be fixed today, Kellogg says that he knows the Hammond Police Department is open to the idea. He says Hammond PD tries very hard to ensure good community relations already.
"We feel like we have a very good relationship with our community already but there's always room to grow and improve and that's what we hope to do," Kellogg says.
Kellogg says the Hammond Police Department practices 100 percent transparency with everything it does, including the issuance of body cameras to every police officer. They are required to turn it on every time they come into contact with a member of the public.
