Raleigh police chief reports progress after ‘Face-to-Face’ meetings with residents

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown has released a report that reaffirms her department’s commitment to community policing and says the department will begin a Citizens Police Academy to try to increase transparency and understanding between police and the public.

The report is a summary of several issues raised during community meetings that Deck-Brown and other officers held last winter and what’s happened since then. The four meetings, collectively referred to as “Face-to-Face: A Community Dialogue Hosted by Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown,” drew more than 600 police officers and residents.

The report, released Thursday, lists nine of the topics that came up most frequently during the meetings and how the department has responded to residents’ concerns. Among the highlights:

▪ The Citizens Police Academy will begin early next year. Raleigh police will join other departments, such as Garner and Cary, that offer classes that introduce the public to law enforcement and the work of their local department.

▪ Raleigh police will begin testing body cameras this fall. The department was already researching body cameras when the meetings took place and has received permission and funding from the city council to purchase about 600 body cameras over the next three years. There have been two fatal shootings by Raleigh police this year in which police officers were the only surviving witnesses and where a body camera might have shown what happened.

▪ The department has updated its consent form that residents must sign before officers can search their body, vehicle or property. The report says the new form will help ensure people understand their rights before agreeing to a search.

▪ The department has not agreed to accept the FaithAction ID, an alternative identification card sponsored by International House, a statewide nonprofit in Charlotte that advocates on behalf of immigrants. International House created the ID in 2013 in partnership with the Greensboro Police Department as an alternative to government-issued forms of identification. The report notes that a bill passed into law last fall prohibits police from using non-government forms of identification, but said officers informally consider a wide variety of official and unofficial information when they need to identify someone.

“The Department is committed to maintaining the positive working relationship it has with Raleigh’s diverse immigrant community,” the report says.

Paul Engram, the owner of a barbershop in Southeast Raleigh where he hosted a rap session last week between community members and Deck-Brown and her officers, applauded the department’s efforts to incorporate body cameras to improve transparency. He’s also impressed with new community policing efforts, including the chief’s push to get officers out of their cars to interact with people.

Engram said Deck-Brown, the city’s first African-American woman police chief, has a difficult job but said he was disappointed that the challenges involving African-Americans and the police were not mentioned in the report.

“There’s a section for Hispanics. But there’s nothing there specifically about black folks,” Engram said. “You know we are here, but it’s almost like you ignore us. Why wasn’t there a special section for [predominantly black] Southeast Raleigh in the report? I just wish we could get our slice of the pie. The way you do Hispanics, do us like that. You can deport them, you can’t deport us. But it feels like they don’t really want us here.”

Diana Powell, director of Justice Served NC, a Raleigh nonprofit that mentors young people at the Wake County jail, attended the Face-to-Face meetings and read the report late Friday. Powell said the report was informative and that she intends to share it with residents in Southeast Raleigh who attend the “Bring Back The Village” meetings she hosts each Monday.

“This is part of the education that our community has missed,” Powell said. “I want to go through it with the residents and have our own discussion about it.”

Powell added that she appreciates the police department’s efforts to connect with the community.

“I believe they are listening,” she said. “I sincerely believe the community has gotten the ear of law enforcement in Wake County.”

Seeking more diversity

The report shows the department has struggled to reach diversity goals within its ranks by hiring more women and officers of color. As of August, whites made up more than 83 percent of the police department’s 761 sworn officers, while African-American men and women made up less than 11 percent, Latino officers just more than 4 percent and Asians about 1 percent.

By contrast, whites make up about 61 percent of Raleigh’s population, according to 2014 U.S. census estimates, while African-Americans account for a little more than 27 percent, Hispanics 12 percent and Asians 3.7 percent.

The report says about 80 percent of the department’s recruitment efforts are aimed at reaching prospective minority candidates and makes an appeal for minorities to join. “If you desire to seek reform in the policing profession, please consider applying to or referring others to the Raleigh Police Department,” it says, and then provides contact information for the Raleigh Police Recruitment Office: www.joinraleighpd.org, 919-996-1343, and by email at rpdrecruitment@raleighnc.gov.

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Raleigh police chief reports progress after ‘Face-to-Face’ meetings with residents."