(Photo courtesy of US Department of Justice)

Loretta E. Lynch is the 83rd Attorney General of the United States.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be visiting Phoenix and five other cities to highlight police departments that she says can serve as role models for law enforcement across the country.

The initiative is part of a national discussion on police use of force and effective law enforcement tactics, a topic that took on new urgency amid a series of high-profile police shootings of unarmed young men in places including Ferguson, Missouri; Cleveland; and North Charleston, South Carolina.

Lynch has already visited places whose police forces are considered to have troubled community relations.

Now, the focus turns to departments that are seen as successful in implementing "pillars" of policing identified in a White House report last May. Each city on the tour represents a different pillar — or subject area — including building community trust, community policing, crime reduction and officer training and education, Lynch said.

Her first visit is to Miami-Dade County in Florida this Thursday and Friday. The other locations are Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; Indianapolis; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Los Angeles.