Police Assessment Resource Center and Western Justice Center Foundation to Host
Regional Symposium on Police-Community Relations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Person:  Jackie Landy, Director of Development
Phone:  626 584 7494 Ext. 13. www.westernjustice.org
Email:  jackie@westernjustice.org
Western Justice Center Foundation
55 S. Grand Avenue
Pasadena CA 91105

POLICE ASSESSMENT RESOURCE CENTER AND WESTERN JUSTICE CENTER
FOUNDATION TO HOST REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS
DECEMBER 1, 2006 .

November 29, 2006, Pasadena, CA. Police Assessment Resource Center and Western
Justice Center Foundation will host a regional symposium on police-community relations
on December 1, 2006 at the Western Justice Center, 55 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena.
The symposium will present findings and lessons learned from the pilot year of the
Pasadena Police-Community Mediation and Dialogue Program; discuss other models
and best practices in police-community relations; and provide guidance to police and
community leaders on how to improve police-community relations in their jurisdictions. 

Now a model program, the Pasadena Police-Community Mediation and Dialogue Program
is the only program of its kind in all of Southern California.

Opening remarks will be made by Merrick J. Bobb, president, Police Assessment Resource
Center, and Al Pearsall, senior policy analyst, COPS.

Keynote speakers are Constance L. Rice, co-director, the Advancement Project - Los
Angeles and Bernard K. Melekian, chief, Pasadena Police Department.

Closing remarks will be made by Western Justice Center Foundation, Board of Directors
Chair, the Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson, Senior Circuit Judge for the United States Court
of Appeals for the Ninth District.

Panelists will include writers from the Los Angeles Times, members of the Los Angeles
Police Commission, researchers, and key staff of the Pasadena, San Diego and Denver
Police Departments.

As Western Justice Center Foundation expands its community engagement programs, it is
guided by the belief that lasting change in the popular violent conflict culture to which our
society seems to have grown accustomed, starts with an open, honest conversation.

For more information about the Pasadena Police-Community Mediation and Dialogue
Program, contact Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Executive Director, Western Justice Center
Foundation, at 626-584-7494 or Najeeba@westernjustice.org