Baltimore's Mayor Discusses Policing, Community Relations

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says policing and community relations require "constant relationship-building work."

The mayor spoke Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington in her role as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.

Rawlings-Blake says the April unrest in Baltimore after Freddie Gray's death in police custody showed the city was not as prepared as it should have been. She also says the nature of urban rioting is different now than it was in the 1960s, and the city has made improvements in communication, training and equipment to address those changes.

The mayor compared police-community relations to being like a marriage. She says it can be a healthy relationship or an unhealthy one, and the two sides need to stay in constant communication to make it healthy.

AP-WF-10-07-15 1916GMT