‘Children are dying in the streets’: Tension flares as Durham leaders debate task force

This story was updated at 2 p.m. Aug. 13, 2020, after the county made a recording of a Monday night county commissioners meeting available.

With gun violence rising, Durham city and county leaders disagreed this week on whether a new task force exploring police alternatives will be effective — and work fast enough.

The morning after three people were shot to death in Durham on Monday, elected officials met to discuss the planned Community Safety and Wellness Task Force,.

During the tense meeting Tuesday, Mayor Steve Schewel told county leaders the city will move forward with or without their participation.

The task force, a City Council initiative, will recommend community-based alternatives to policing and the criminal justice system. The city, the county, and school board would each appoint five members with various levels of expertise in policy, education, and criminal justice.

But some county commissioners balked at the task force’s proposed bylaws, or operating rules.

“Our children are dying in the streets. You’ve created something that was thrown at us and say ‘get on board or not,’” Commissioner Brenda Howerton said. “And half of my board didn’t know anything about it.”

“This has not been done in the most collegiate kind of way for two boards to work together,” she said.

Commissioner James Hill said he would also vote against proposed bylaws. County Commissioners Chair Wendy Jacobs and Commissioner Heidi Carter supported the bylaws, and Commissioner Ellen Reckhow was undecided.

“We will move forward, if we have to, by ourselves and with the school board,” Schewel said. “But it would be so much better to have the county involved.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson proposed creating the task force in early March. The City Council approved $1 million in June toward implementing whatever the group eventually recommends.

“Another child murdered in Durham.”

The night before the joint city-county meeting, county officials discussed the task force at a regular meeting of their own.

Howerton questioned whether a task force would effectively address Durham’s rise in gun-related crimes. Reported assaults with firearms are up 42% this year, according to Durham Police Department statistics.

“Every time I turn the news on, and there was another child murdered in Durham,” said Howerton.

Howerton lost her oldest son Charles in a shooting in 1993. Her son Daryl was shot to death by police in 1994.

“You’re talking about pulling on resources, financially, and a personnel, to do something that’s not going to save nobody’s life for maybe two years from now,” she said at the meeting.

“I’m not, I’m not willing to wait. I’m not willing to sit around talking. There’s, we’ve had so much research done on Black and brown people, you could fill a library,” she said.

The Community Safety and Wellness Task Force’s revised bylaws give it two years to make its recommendations. The group’s first 90 days would include three listening sessions with residents.

Howerton doesn’t think enough of Durham’s residents were included in planning the task force.

“To me, this, another task force, another task force, where the community has not had enough of an opportunity to weigh in. Some of the community, a very small portion of the community has weighed in. But overall?” she said.

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead shared Howerton’s concerns.

“I too am struggling with the necessity of another task force to evaluate a situation to me right now that is critical,” Birkhead said at Monday night’s meeting. “Today, we’ve had three homicides over the weekend. We had additional shootings. It’s a daily occurrence.”

When the two-year timeline was raised Tuesday, Johnson said it would not take to two years to implement the group’s recommendations.

The purpose for the two-year timeline is to allow consistent, community engagement, to “guide and shape” new policy suggestions as the local government carries them out, Johnson said.

Should police, sheriff employees serve on task force?

The tension, Tuesday revolved around whether the county commissioners were sufficiently engaged during the initial planning process.

The elected leaders also debated whether the task force should include law enforcement members.

Hill said he wanted to include the police chief and sheriff.

“We have two professionals in Durham that are doing a pretty good job of law enforcement,” Hill said. “And like I said, we don’t have a rabid police union in Durham, thank God.”

Johnson disagreed and said the task force should not include city staff, county staff, or elected officials as members.

City Council member DeDreana Freeman said she understands Hill’s concerns.

“Without having a way forward to make sure that the conversation is not just about bashing police or the sheriff or what have you, it’s concerning,” Freeman said.

Commissioner accuses mayor of disrespect

Howerton said the City Council had thrust the task force’s bylaws into the county commissioners’ orbit without discussing it enough beforehand.

Schewel said the county had plenty of time to raise concerns.

“We’ve had this out here for a long time. And it’s really impossible to deal with someone’s concerns if you don’t know what they are,” Schewel told Howerton. “So, if you want to put those (concerns) in an email tomorrow or something like that, we can deal with it.”

Howerton later accused Schewel of disrespecting her.

“What you just did was just disrespected that I have a right to have concerns,” Howerton said. “And as I said, I’ve got all due respect, mayor. I have a right to have my concerns. And not just my concerns, but concerns I’ve heard from community as well, and you’re not listening to me.”

Johnson said council members proposed the task force after Durham residents asked the city to do more about policing.

“This proposal is not something that the council just came up with,” she said. “This was brought to us by residents asking for us to do more around safety and also to do more around policing, because, you know, because there are such serious issues with violence in Durham.”

The ultimate goal is to bring in more input from Durham residents about public safety, Johnson said.

“We’re moving forward on community based anti-violence and public-safety solutions regardless,” she said. “This is the goal of this project. It’s for the community to have a voice.”

Howerton emailed a statement to The News & Observer to clarify her thoughts on the task force:

“It is really important that the community is involved in creating solutions alongside us as elected officials. Creating task forces do not necessarily create the change we need. We must strive to be more collaborative, innovative, and equitable in our service to community. The strength of diversity of our lived experiences and ideas must be appreciated and respected for sustainable solutions that benefit the entire community and not just a few.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 3:27 PM.