In response to events in Ferguson (MO), New York City (NY), and Cleveland (OH) in 2014, the IACP held a National Policy Summit on Community-Police Relations in October of that same year to open dialogue regarding ways to build and sustain trusting community-police relationships.  The summit brought together law enforcement leaders, representative from NAACP, ACLU, Leadership Conference on Civil rights, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights, as well as various representatives of local civil rights and community groups, to discuss the current state of community-police relations and how to advance a culture of trust and inclusion, and improve relations.

The resulting summit report is a road map and a call to action for law enforcement, communities, and stakeholders, providing ways to improve, strengthen, and rebuild communication and transparency within the community. The report defines three overarching conceptual elements of strong community-police relations: communication, partnership, and trust, and goes on to list recommendations for each of these categories. 

The report also makes clear that the challenges currently being faced by law enforcement, were not created in a vacuum, and cannot be solved by law enforcement alone. Instead, the solution lies in making progress in a number of areas, and requires coordination and collaboration at all levels. Therefore, recommendations for key stakeholders, such as community and political leaders, are also included in the report.