The Syracuse Common Council unanimously passed funding for a police-community dialogue project organized by InterFaith Works of Central New York. Police officers and community volunteer facilitators will hold dialogue circles with city residents. The goal of the dialogues is to strengthen understanding between residents and police. The funding of $30,000 was initially objected by Councilor Khalid Bey and the measure was held. Bey told the police department and InterFaith Works that he was skeptical these dialogues were improving police relations with city residents. Bey said he thought funding the program was a redundancy since he said the purpose of the Citizens Review Board is to smooth community-police relationships. He also questioned if the program was talking to all the right city residents. Since then, Bey says he has talked with the police department and InterFaith Works about making changes to the program. "The chiefs feel comfortable about it, so the fact that they find
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