It’s called the Martin Luther King Jr. Forum on Crime and Police/Community Relations. Henry Harry with the Oak Park Foundation – which is holding the event – says something needs to be done about strained relations between the police and residents. 

"There’s definitely some tensions in Oak Park." 

He cites two major reasons for the friction. 

"First there is this high crime rate and sense of abandonment and that’s followed by the citizens only seeing the police in these crisis situations, they don’t really see the police coming in preventing some of these crimes."

Oak Park is one of the city’s most dangerous areas with a high rate of violent crime. Saturday's forum will include a role playing exercise where police will explain why they take certain actions when dealing with the public.

The forum is from 10 AM to noon at the Oak Park Community Center.