"Attorney General Eric Holder will hold regional roundtable meetings as part of the department's Building Community Trust initiative," the release issued by the DOJ said. "The roundtables will serve as an opportunity to bring law enforcement, elected officials and members of the community together to discuss next steps that the administration will take to improve relationships between law enforcement and the community."
Cleveland, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland are among the selected cities where Holder will conduct the roundtables. Thursday's roundtable will be hosted by Cleveland.
The first Building Community Trust roundtable took place in Atlanta on Monday, where Holder announced that the US Department of Justice would soon release new guidelines "on the use of racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies."
Last week's grand jury ruling in Ferguson not to charge a white police officer Darren Wilson for the deadly shooting of the African-American teenager Michael Brown in August ignited massive protests around the United States and renewed the debate over police brutality and racial profiling in the country.
What is more, last Monday, a 12-year-old African-American boy was fatally shot by a white police officer in Cleveland over the alleged brandishing of a replica gun at people in a playground.
Meanwhile, a new wave of protests began this Wednesday over the New York grand jury's decision not to press charges against a white police officer Daniel Pantaleo from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) who chocked an African-American Eric Garner to death.