Carrboro Police Department
The Carrboro Police Department will be running our next Citizen's Police Academy on September 10th, 2016 at the Carrboro Police Department. I'll be the lead instructor during the academy and numerous other officers will be on hand to assist with different blocks of instruction. The basic format for the Citizen's Police Academy is listed below:
- Classroom lecture on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, law enforcement operations & procedures and vital department statistics.
- Hands-on activities including fingerprint lifting, K-9 demonstrations, vehicle demonstrations, etc.
- Scenarios involving roleplayers where participants will get to act as police officers and respond to calls for services based on real calls we've responded to.
Lunch will be provided as part of the Academy.
Officer D here; this is my first post on Orange Politics!
For those of you who don't know me, I'm a member of the Carrboro Police Department's Community Services Division. One of my primary assignments is to create, organize and complete Community Oriented Policing (COPS) initiatives. Our current major COPS initiatives are the Police Department Open House (next event--June 22nd from 6:30 PM to 8 PM) and the Citizen's Police Academy (September 10th, all day). Current ongoing initiatives are Coffee with the Cops, Kava with the Cops, Neighborhood Forums, Pizza with the Police and other similar events.
I'll be periodically posting officer profiles, announcing major events and attempting to keep people posted on what's going on with the Carrboro Police Department!
During its regular monthly meeting, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the North Carolina NAACP hosted Chief Walter Horton of the Carrboro Police Department, Chief Chris Blue of the Chapel Hill Police Department, and Sheriff Charles Blackwood for a discussion of law enforcement issues. A diverse group of more than 50 people attended, including many members of the NAACP and other local social justice advocates. Orange County commissioner and civil rights attorney Mark Dorosin, Chapel Hill Town Council member Maria Palmer, and Carrboro alderperson Damon Seils also attended.
The NAACP solicited questions in advance and posed them to each of the three law enforcement administrators in turn, and then questions were taken from the audience via index card. The questions focused on racial disparities in police stops, searches, and arrests on our streets and in our schools; the implicit bias that contributes to those disparities; de-escalation and use of force; and how to bring complaints to the attention of law enforcement.
It is clear from recent police forums and from experiences shared by people of color in our communities that we have a serious problem with racial equity in policing in Orange County. The most recent example is a guest column by Stephanie Perry in Sunday’s Chapel Hill News (12/21/14). Perry serves with me on the board of Orange County Justice United. We heard other stories like this during the Carrboro community forum on policing in October.
Law enforcement behavior that is disproportionately affecting communities of color is unacceptable to me. It is especially troubling to see that these disparities exist in our communities regardless of how enlightened we think we are. I am cautiously optimistic about the steps I see the Carrboro and Chapel Hill Police Departments taking.
Carrboro
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