Regarding "Policing the police: Violence in Ferguson, Mo., reflects the need for a watchful eye on police departments" (Page B8, Friday), the editorial correctly asserts that "Police are supposed to serve a civilian leadership, not the other way around."

It is plainly obvious that there is a need for the community to have more substantive input in police operations in Houston and across America. There is a growing disconnect between neighborhood residents and police officers, as more and more law-biding citizens have lost trust and confidence in the police and government in general.

There must be greater contact, communication, trust and information exchange between police and citizens. Building that trust can begin in the most simple but significant way: giving citizens better tools to understand whether they are receiving an effective level of policing.

As a representative of City Council, I'm often asked about neighborhood-level services. A top concern in most neighborhoods is about policing, namely police response times and crime statistics. Neighborhood-level data should be a click away. How is crime in Houston? Generally, we're not doing badly. But that's not the case in all neighborhoods, and residents rightly want to know what their police department is doing about it. Easy-to-access, ultra-local information would give them the answers they need. The vacuum of basic information hints at the gap between local police departments and the community, making the chaos in Ferguson, Mo., easier to understand: What are they not telling us?

Yes, a Ferguson, Mo., type of incident could happen any place in America, including Houston. Citizens are demanding greater input and accountability from the police in Houston, and across America. Individuals and groups have worked hard for a number of years in Houston - mostly behind the scenes - nurturing that very fragile "love-hate relationship" between the police and local residents.

The stakeholders, from neighborhood associations to the Houston Bar Association, have a keen interest in keeping the line of communication and trust open between local law enforcement and neighborhood residents.

What could help rebuild citizens' trust and confidence in the police? More transparent and inclusive police oversight panels, for one. Houston has a mayor-appointed Public Safety Advisory Committee and an Independent Police Oversight Board. Both panels are without substantive authority and operate as mostly unknown bodies. While community "stakeholder groups" - for instance, local civil rights organizations such as NAACP or neighborhood groups - may be invited to recommend to the mayor and City Council someone to serve on either of these boards, they ultimately have little say over the final composition. That needs to change.

I'd go two steps further: These stakeholder groups should be part of a discussion that establishes new criteria and qualitifications for those serving on the panels, and they also should be permitted to appoint and remove their respective assigned representatives to the Public Safety Advisory Committee and Independent Police Oversight Board.

Doing so certainly would bring neighborhood credibility to the process, and it may even increase citizens' trust and confidence in that "policing-the-police" process.

Ferguson should be a wake-up call for our community. Let the conversation begin now.