Philadelphia (CBS) – City Council has now chosen a date in early December for a hearing to discuss the increasingly tense relations between Philadelphia police and residents; a hearing that is likely to delve into the contentious police tactic known as ‘Stop and Frisk.’

The hearing on police conduct is now scheduled for the afternoon of December 7th, and it could be a lengthy and difficult session.

Councilman Curtis Jones is among the lawmakers who called for the debate, “More and more in the barbershops and beauty salons I travel to, it has become the civil rights issue of our day.”

Jones promises a hearing that is fair both to residents who feel they’ve been mistreated by officers and fair to the officers themselves, “Every citizen has a right to be treated with courtesy. And every police officer has the right to return home after a shift.”

Police Department officials are expected to testify. The FOP says it will take part so long as it’s not, in the words of one union official, “a witch hunt.”

Reported by Mike Dunn, KYW Newsradio