It’s a given that police-community relations are as bad as they’ve been since the darkest of days in America. In the year since George Floyd was killed, more than 400 people have died in confrontations with police, according to the Mapping Police Violence database, 17 of those in New Jersey.

Cities like Newark, Jersey City and Paterson are working to tamp down the temperature of encounters by reshaping their police departments to look more like the people they serve. As long as the decision-makers in police departments remain largely white, activists say a more inclusive conversation can’t really take place.

WATCH: Police reform activists acknowledge changes but say too much is still the same

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