Last year, shortly after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Gwinnett County Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson says she and her fellow commissioners began having conversations about creating an advisory board to build stronger relationships between police officers and residents.
“We were seeing protests all around the nation, and we felt that this was a good first step in addressing that bridge-building,” said Hendrickson, who supported the creation of a community-based board.
Recently, after a final vote, the green light was given, and the Gwinnett County Police Citizens Advisory Board was created.
Hendrickson, when establishing the 10-member board, wanted to make sure various stakeholders, citizens, business professionals and legal and law enforcement groups had a voice in building bridges of change.