New DeKalb Police Chief ready for the challenge of rebuilding department

DeKalb’s new police chief said he is ready to earn the trust of the residents by rebuilding the police department.

“I’m looking forward to working here,” Chris Phelps said. “It’s going to be a challenge because there’s a lot of rebuilding to do with the community because the community right now doesn’t trust us. And understandably so … I don’t blame them.”

“But we have a lot of rebuilding to do and hopefully through interacting with them and letting them see that we’re trying to do the right thing, we can rebuild that trust,” he added.Phelps took office as the chief of the DeKalb Police Department on August 1.