City leaders are taking an unprecedented look at police policy, but expectations are mixed
In a rare move, elected leaders in Charlotte are examining the fine print of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police policy in hopes of making major reforms. One of the City Council’s longest-serving members says such an undertaking hasn’t occurred in at least 20 years.
The review — which will start within the council’s Safe Communities Committee — comes as polls show public support for the Black Lives Matter movement has increased significantly following protests across the country against police brutality, renewed after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Other city councils across the country, including those in Fayetteville and Greenville, S.C., are also taking new steps toward influencing police department training and changes to policy. Both city councils are examining use of force policies and civilian oversight over allegations of police misconduct.
In Charlotte, the committee has set a 90-day plan to review certain CMPD policy, including sections on de-escalation and use of force. Some members say they’d also consider changes to CMPD’s budget.
“I don’t remember a time like this in Charlotte when there was so much intense interest and citizen input on police reform,” said Citizens Review Board Chair Tonya Jameson, who will also provide input to City Council.
Charlotte officials — like CMPD’s new Chief Johnny Jennings and Charlotte City Manger Marcus Jones — have expressed support for the committee’s new role examining police and said they want to hear from the community.
“I think there’s a greater agreement that now is the time for us to find ways to improve and change and modernize and re-imagine policing and community safety,” said Larken Egleston, City Council member and chair of the Committee.
However, activists who are also participating have mixed expectations on whether the committee will bring the type of changes most needed.
“When I was first invited Friday night and I looked at it and thought ‘I’m not doing it,’” said Robert Dawkins from the social justice organization Action NC.
Dawkins, a longtime Charlotte advocate for police accountability and reform, said he’s made recommendations to CMPD and Charlotte City Council for years to little avail. Ultimately, he said he decided to participate and plans to document the process.
“I didn’t think we needed a committee,” said Charlotte NAACP leader Corine Mack, who will also provide input. “There are some things that could be implemented immediately.”
Mack said she wants more money from the police budget allocated to social services and the end of choke holds, chemical munitions used in protests and no-knock warrants.
‘Huge changes’?
The City Council’s review of police policy is planned to be wide-ranging. Customarily, CMPD’s chief and top leaders have been in charge of writing and implementing policy, with input from some advisory boards.
For the next two months, the committee will review to see whether CMPD policies align with the national “8 Can’t Wait” initiative and also examine CMPD’s rules of conduct as well as the roles of the Civil Service Board, which oversees promotions and demotions, and Citizens Review Board, which reviews civilian complaints when someone believes an officer has not been adequately disciplined.
The Safe Communities committee intends to look at the wording of parts of CMPD’s department directives, the 600-page document that outlines policies related to everything from uniforms to use of force to body-worn cameras. The committee may also look at some of CMPD’s Standard Operating Procedures — policies that oversee specific CMPD programs or units.
The committee hopes to bring recommendations to the full council for a vote in September. The council would recommend policy changes to the city manager to implement with the police chief.
While some council members have pledged to “reimagine” the police department and its role in public safety, Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs, who is not on the Safe Communities committee, said while tension between the community and CMPD must be addressed, he does not “expect the process to result in huge changes” to the department.
Driggs said that an external review by the Police Foundation of CMPD has found the department to be “exemplary” and in step with national policing reforms. Quoting his comments from an earlier City Council meeting, he said if the committee has ambitious goals, that could be a “recipe for disappointment ... in an environment where there isn’t that much scope for improvement.”
Police reform debate
June saw nearly one month of protests in Charlotte and calls for reform have ranged from defunding the police department and abolishing CMPD to demands for a permanent ban on the use of chemical agents on protesters.
CMPD has also come under fire since June 2 when video circulated online appeared to show protesters marching peacefully when police deployed tear gas on two ends of a street. The incident prompted City Council members to prohibit CMPD from spending money over the next year on chemical agents like tear gas and pepper spray. Protesters have also sued CMPD in hopes that tactics from that evening will not be used again.
After September, the Safe Communities Committee is planning to review CMPD’s budget more broadly.
City Council member and committee vice-chair James Mitchell said he is hoping the process can be collaborative between elected officials, CMPD and citizens.
“We have to find a common place ... We have a tendency to focus on our differences,” Mitchell said.
The review board’s Jameson said she does not want to “rehash old fights.”
However this year alone, activists, advisers and CMPD leaders have disagreed on policies that will be on the table.
For example, in March the Citizens Review Board recommended the police department adopt a new policy that would require an officer to immediately intervene if he or she saw a fellow officer using excessive force or failing to de-escalate a tense situation, which may lead to use of force. The suggestion came after the Citizens Review Board voted against CMPD’s finding that one of its officers was justified in the fatal police shooting of Danquirs Franklin in March 2019. Dawkins and others had been asking CMPD for such a policy for years.
In response to the recommendation, CMPD said the department’s code of conduct for officers was sufficient and that a “duty to intervene” policy was “not practical.”
Less than two months later — after a week of protesting in Charlotte and around the country — Putney agreed to implement a duty to intervene policy but the change had limitations, calling for officers to intervene in cases of “egregious behavior which shocks the conscience.”
Immediately, critics blasted the policy as vague and said it would apply only to the most egregious cases of police misconduct.
City Council member Victoria Watlington, who is on the committee, said she is interested in revisiting the policy’s wording. Jameson said while the current policy is not as strong as the review board had hoped, it is still a “first step.”
Another question that will likely be examined is whether the Citizens Review Board should have subpoena power. The review board has argued the authority to compel testimony is needed, especially this year when CMPD Officer Wende Kerl did not appear for the Franklin hearing, marking the first time an active CMPD employee has done so.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police, a support organization for CMPD officers, has said that officers should be able to choose whether to testify since the information from the hearing is often used for civil lawsuits later on.
In response to the review in April, CMPD rejected the suggestion and said that “subpoena power is neither necessary or prudent.”
In North Carolina, advocates have repeatedly asked the governor and state legislature to give civilian oversight boards additional power to little effect, according to the (Raleigh) News and Observer.
Any recommendations from the Safe Communities Committee will go to all City Council members for a vote. In Charlotte’s form of council-manager government, the manager reports directly to the council but the police chief is hired by and reports to the city manager.
