The local court system is reaching out to the community to help get more African Americans to serve on jury duty.
African Americans make up 12 percent of the population in Monroe County, but only 7 percent of them are represented in the jury pool since spring.
Chuck Perreaud, Monroe County Commissioner of Jurors, says the campaign called Now It's Your Turn, "There have been days when our participation by African Americans has been at or exceeds the number the census bureau would have been at, so I'm seeing very positive changes. This is just the start of a very large permanent change we'd like to see."
Perreaud says they're looking for volunteers to hand out questionnaires to churches, businesses and other groups in an effort to boost minority jury participation.