The Baltimore City Police Department is partnering with a local nonprofit to help boost the recruitment of City residents to serve on the police force.

As reported on WYPR:

“We’ve always advertised in the city of Baltimore, but what we’re doing now is we’re taking it to a more grassroots level,” said Maj. James Handley, director of the Baltimore Police Recruitment Unit. “We’re actually going out into the communities to recruit.”

At the heart of this new effort is a partnership with the Baltimore-based nonprofit Center for Urban Families. Founder and President Joe Jones said the idea grew out of a desire to improve police-community relations, and to help the police force look more like the people it serves.

“They have a need to recruit, and we think that we have inroads to the community and can help them identify people in the community who actually might be interested in becoming law enforcement officers,” Jones said.

The organization offers workforce development and other programs aimed at improving economic stability for residents of low-income neighborhoods. Handley and Jones both said it seemed a natural fit.

Read the full article on WYPR for more information.