The North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice released a report this week outlining 125 solutions to address racial disparities found in policing and state law enforcement.
The 23-member task force was formed by Governor Roy Cooper in June following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
On Monday, the task force introduced suggestions that included mandating body cameras for all law enforcement agencies, prioritizing traffic stops that improve traffic safety and decriminalizing minor drug offenses.
Chapel Hill Police Chief, Chris Blue, recently spoke about this topic during 97.9 The Hill’s forum panel on public safety and social justice. Blue said he’s cautiously optimistic and encouraged to see law enforcement having conversations about racial justice that they weren’t having just a year ago.
“Where I am encouraged is, I’m seeing this incremental creep of really important discussions around use of force and disparities in low-level misdemeanor crime enforcement,” Blue said. “More importantly, I’m imagining those conversations will make their way into the legislature this year. Where they go – we all have an opportunity to influence that.”
Blue said it’s important for communities to hold their public servants accountable, and that it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure local law enforcement are meeting community expectations.
“Early in my career I had the benefit of working for a chief who said to me ‘you should police your community the way they want to be policed,’” Blue said. “That has been a guiding philosophy of mine and our department always.”
Blue said many of the recommendations he’s seen come out of the governor’s task force over the past few months have stirred up much-needed discussion on pressing issues in the state.
Along with addressing racial disparities in law enforcement, part of the task force’s focus was on the state’s youngest offenders, including asking for the minimum age for a child to enter the juvenile justice system to be increased from six to 12-years-old. Currently, the age of juvenile jurisdiction in North Carolina is the youngest in the nation.
With so many possible reforms on the table, Blue said law enforcement should spend the most time on policy interventions where the greatest law enforcement disparities exist.
“We ran some numbers towards the end of the summertime, and about 50 percent of our calls for service in our downtown area were calls of service related to homelessness,” Blue said. “We aren’t the answer to that call, but people don’t know who else to call other than 9-1-1.”
At the end of the day, Blue said he thinks community engagement and continued discussions will be critical when addressing how to erase racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
“I’m very proud of our profession, I’m very proud of our department and it is good important work – but what it ultimately looks like is informed by the people who we serve,” Blue said. “I really want our community’s help in making our department the most desirable police department that you can find anywhere – because if we’re going to continue this good work, we’ve got to have good input coming in the door.”
To hear more of that conversation on public safety and social justice, click here.
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