Miki Grace, president of Delta Sigma Theta, said she was in awe when she was pulled over and told to take off her coat, hat and gloves when DeKalb Police wanted to search her in below-freezing temperatures this winter.

Grace led a discussion with close to 50 people to express thoughts and insight on DeKalb and Chicago police discrimination Thursday in the Holmes Student Center, University Suite.

The DeKalb Police Biased Enforcement Policy states that members of DeKalb Police are not permitted to enact a stop, detention or search of anyone based on discrimination like race, color or ethnicity, according to the DeKalb Police Department website.

“I think subconscious racism happens everywhere,” said Student Association President Nathan Lupstein. “Sometimes people don’t recognize when racism occurs because it becomes so natural.”

Lupstein said part of the issue with discrimination is that people don’t always identify their behavior as offensive. Lupstein said he sees this issue on Facebook when friends inappropriately comment on videos displaying police discrimination.

No hate crimes, which are crimes when a victim is intentionally selected due to their actual or perceived race or ethnicity, among other things, were reported in 2013 or 2014 on campus, according to the 2015-16 NIU Annual Safety and Security Report.

“I think there is a pretty good relationship between our students and the campus police,” Baker said. “The police have started a police academy, ride-along program, series of dialogues of campus events and security concerns.”

NIU Police Officer Junelle Smith said the best way to improve police and student relationships is by talking to and engaging students. Smith said 85 percent of her day is spent engaging with students.

Smith and six other NIU police officers attended the event.

Lupstein said the SA will host Dialogues on Diversity, which are dialogues designed to engage students in learning about cultural differences to better inclusion on campus, with Chief Diversity Officer Vernese Edghill-Walden by the end of the semester.

During the dialogue, Grace said high crime rates are usually a symptom of poverty and are prevalent in minority communities. Businesses in these communities need financial support to help them escape this cycle of poverty.

“Tonight [Thursday], a speaker talked about economic repression and it being a root cause of crime,” Baker said. “That’s probably true to a great extent … . We’re trying to work on those issues as a university and community so we have more justice and inclusion.”

Baker said Camp Power started to alleviate DeKalb crime. Camp Power is a summer camp hosted in University Village, 722 N. Annie Glidden Road, which serves local youth in order to deter crime. In 2015, the number of arrests in University Village dropped by 48.6 percent compared to 2014, which was attributed to the presence of Camp Power.

Donald Grady, former NIU Police chief, said police officers mistake their title as just law enforcers but police officers are more like community builders. Grady said his strategy to prevent crime is to make himself present and communicate with the community.

“I think there’s a will on both sides,” Baker said. “Now we need to expand on that and make it happen.”