Earning trust won’t happen overnight for North Charleston police

We’ve heard a lot about police shootings of unarmed black men in America. But CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassman decided to follow up on one of those cases, and in particular what the police are doing to gain the trust of the people they are sworn to protect.

It was last April when the video of the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston went viral. It showed an unarmed man in a green shirt running from a cop and shot multiple times in the back. He’d been stopped for a broken brake light.

Officer Michael Slager was indicted for murder after the cell phone video showed he had lied about the incident in his report.

Anthony Smith, who runs a barbershop about four miles from where it happened, told Strassman that restoring trust with the black community will take time.

“You never heard about a white policeman shooting a white guy running away,” Smith said. “It’s gotta be ‘Driving While Being Black.'”

Strassmann asked Smith how long the situation had been going on.

“C’mon, man!” Smith laughs. “Are you serious?!”

So North Charleston police have their work cut out for them. Eight officers are now assigned to work on community relations. All summer they’ve been handing out coupons for snacks or the zoo when they see kids doing something good.

But Deputy Chief Scott Deckard admits it’ll take time.

“It is awkward to go in to some of these places and start a general conversation without having something extra there to maintain the conversation,” Deckard said.

It’s especially awkward because the one thing the community wants to ask him about is the one thing he can’t comment on. Local activist A.J. Davis says people want to talk to the police about why Walter Scott was targeted and how a man dies over a brake light.

“What you didn’t have is any true discussion between the police department and various community groups,” Davis said. “Especially those that are targeted, on how they could improve the image of the police department within the community.”