Why Orange County says it can lead NC on police and law-enforcement reform
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office plans to spend $900,000 that was headed toward equipment on helping people experiencing a serious mental health crisis.
In addition to possibly hiring a clinical social worker for the department, the money also could help train county employees, as well as law enforcement agencies statewide, Sheriff Charles Blackwood told the Orange County Commissioners on Tuesday.
In an interview Monday, Blackwood and court officials told The News & Observer they want their programs to be a model for other counties. Blackwood previously hosted other agencies for training on how officers can learn to verbally de-escalate tense situations.
The Sheriffs Office got the $900,000 through the federal asset forfeiture program, which pays law enforcement agencies a portion of the value of property seized during criminal investigations, he said. It was going to buy a mobile command center vehicle for the Sheriff’s Office to use as workspace and storage in the field.
Seeing a police officer kill George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis “shocked the conscience of our community,” Blackwood said.
“It was painful to watch and review, and it has fired the emotions of the entire world,” he said. “These events also have caused many people to ask what are we doing to make certain that it doesn’t happen here.”
“While it hasn’t happened here, I think we all know that it can,” he said. “As a law enforcement leader, I must accept that I am part of the problem of systemic racism.”
Conversations about race, policing
Blackwood’s meeting with the commissioners was just the beginning of a conversation sparked by nationwide protests following Floyd’s death and calls, including in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County, to defund law enforcement.
The commissioners voted 6-0 to plan a virtual community meeting on racial justice, equity and policing for early July.
Commissioner Renee Price, a Black woman, abstained from the vote after a tense back-and-forth with Commissioner Mark Dorosin about how he and Commissioner Mark Marcoplos, two white men, came up with their idea for the event.
“My reason is that to have a resolution about racial justice and not to include in that resolution anything about coordinating with people of color, I just find it — I don’t even know what adjective I should use — but it just bothers me,” Price said.
There wasn’t the plan, Dorosin said, only an idea from which the board could start the planning process.
“I specifically, and Mark (Marcoplos) specifically, didn’t presume to suggest what this forum would look like, who would be involved ... without consulting with all of you,” Dorosin said. “That’s the reason we brought it up, was to discuss.”
Other conversations are already happening, including about the role of school resource officers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County school districts, officials said.
The sheriff also will meet with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough police to talk about what law enforcement is doing right and what could be better, Caitlin Fenhagen, director of the county’s Criminal Justice Resource Department, told The N&O in an interview.
That discussion also could bring in faith leaders, local NAACP officials, the public defender’s office and a person who has experienced addiction recovery and the county’s criminal justice system.
What’s happening now is an opportunity for the Sheriff’s Office, the district attorney’s office and the Criminal Justice Resource Department to make it clear where they stand and hear from the community, Blackwood said.
“I’m not upset that this happened,” Blackwood said. “I’m excited that they focused on us right now. I’m excited that we have a platform to tell them what we’re doing.”
Traffic stops, searches
Orange County can lead the way on changes because of its work over the last 20 years, Blackwood and District Attorney Jim Woodall said. Although some programs were met initially with skepticism and even laughter, some counties are now adopting them, they said.
“Anytime you do something different than the way it’s always been done, it’s difficult,” Blackwood said. “What we have learned in Orange County, and what we have learned in this court system and this office, is let’s try it and let’s see what happens.”
That includes equipping deputies with written consent to search forms in 2016 and efforts to gather data about what’s happening. This week, the Sheriff’s Office started tracking traffic search data by race and gender, he said.
The department already tracks traffic stops by race and gender, sending that information to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation.
SBI statistics show most Sheriff’s Office stops are for traffic violations, such as speeding. Deputies have stopped over 1,000 drivers a year since January 2016. Roughly a third were Black, while over half were white.
Nearly 50% of searches from 2016 to 2018 involved Black drivers, SBI statistics show, although Black people comprise less than 14% of the county’s population. Last year, roughly half of the drivers whose cars were searched were white.
Some drivers refuse a search, but you can still build a rapport by taking the time to explain the process, Sheriff’s Maj. Kevin Jones said.
“The contacts that we have with people like that are calmer,” Jones said. “The general public doesn’t see us in the capacity as long ago when there was the War on Drugs. They see us as compassionate and doing things law enforcement is expected to do.”
Use of force reports
Reports tracking use of force show that in 2017, deputies responded to 15,765 incidents, using force eight times. Force was used 18 times while responding to 11,432 incidents in 2018 and 11,077 incidents in 2019.
Some of those incidents involved multiple officers and suspects, department records showed. The largest number of reports were for officers pointing firearms at suspects, while a handful involved officers using Tasers or physically interacting with people.
Deputies fired their weapons only once in the last three years, when they shot and killed Mebane resident Keo Crockett while trying to arrest him following a home invasion and assault. An investigation later cleared the deputy who fired the fatal shot.
Crisis intervention and other training, including Verbal Judo de-escalation techniques, have reduced the number of time force is used, Chief Deputy Jamison Sykes said. Blackwood noted he and others also have benefited from bias in policing and Racial Equity Training.
Excessive force complaints are thoroughly investigated and kept on file, Jones said. Substantiated complaints can be turned over to the District Attorney’s Office for possible charges. A county Racial Justice Task Force also meets with the district attorney’s office, court officials and the NAACP, officials said.
“I don’t want to say by no means we’re doing everything right here … but I do think we’re doing things a little bit differently here than they’re done in most places in the country and the state,” Woodall said. “I’m not sure that the public here understands that or knows that.”
Pre-trial, jail, diversion programs
In 2000, the county challenged conventional justice by creating the Community Resource Court to give low-level offenders with mental health issues a chance to get help and have their charges dismissed. Recovery Court and Family Treatment courts followed to help offenders with substance-abuse issues and with custody and parental issues.
In 2015, the county created the Criminal Justice Resource Department to support alternatives to jail. Fenhagen now manages 11 programs, including pre-trial release, a reentry council for offenders released from jail, a pre-arrest diversion program and the Foundations for Hope peer recovery program.
The Medication Assisted Treatment Program gives continued treatment to addicts taking Suboxone or another drug that blocks withdrawal symptoms while they’re in jail. It also reduces problems and the time spent managing people in withdrawal, Blackwood noted.
“Previously, and in most jails, they don’t get that treatment,” Fenhagen said, “and then they’re at huge risk when they get released for overdose and death.”
The Community Paramedics program, which connects addicts who overdose with recovery resources and checks in on seniors living alone, also is making a difference, as is the driver’s license restoration program, Blackwood said.
The district attorney’s office proposed the restoration program to help low-income people pay court fines and fees that keep them from getting their driver’s license back. Those who can’t afford to pay those costs often rack up more charges and costs, perpetuating the problem. Roughly 200 people have applied for help so far this year, Fenhagen said.
Lack of funding keeps them from doing more, she said, such as expanding the pre-arrest diversion program for people charged with public urination, second-degree trespassing and other low-level misdemeanors. Only first-time offenders avoid arrest now.
Roughly 87% of her department’s $735,949 budget covers staff salaries and benefits, and they could use more people to staff new and existing programs, she said.
“Right now, law enforcement is being asked to do this work, as they are the ones getting the calls when a person is in crisis,” Fenhagen said. “There needs to be an investment in therapeutic alternatives.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 12:42 PM.
