Fayetteville chief, community leaders weigh in on events in Ferguson
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- As a group of North Carolinians prepare to join protests in Ferguson, Missouri, local communities are having conversations centered on deep-rooted issues tied to race relations, transparency, and law enforcement's relationships with their communities.
"The images there are disheartening, and I'm just talking about the turmoil," said Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock. "And it's unsettling. It should be unsettling to everyone in this country."
Medlock weighed in on that turmoil following Friday's graduation ceremony for the department's 18 newest officers. During the graduation, he offered officers words of wisdom to prepare them for challenges they may face interacting with the public.
"I hope that I can convey to the new officers that it's important we connect with our community," said Medlock.
Community policing has been a major focus for the department since Medlock took his post in 2013. The department assigns officers to specific neighborhoods in attempts to foster personal relationships with neighbors. They also participate in regular town hall style meetings to get one-on-one with people about issues facing the community.
Before the media spotlight turned to Ferguson's turmoil, and the Michael Brown shooting, Medlock said his department embarked on new training through the Department of Justice. He said they reached out to the DOJ in a routine effort to review use of force policies. Within the past couple of weeks, Medlock said he and his command staff have undergone fair policing training, and plan to extend it to the entire department over the next few months.
"(It's) to make sure that we understand, not necessarily overt biases that we may have, but those biases that may be deeply hidden within us that really kind of guide our decision-making and thought process," he said.
Dr. Nicole Lucas, the interim chair of Sociology at Fayetteville State University, said Ferguson has already been at the center of classroom discussions this year.
"Students are very apprehensive about their future dealings with police," Lucas said. "They say they're just unsure of how police are going to react to them in similar situations. I think there's a push now for transparency and how police go about their usual business."
Last week in Hoke County, Sheriff Hubert Peterkin cited Ferguson as confirmation his department was headed in the right direction with the purchase of body cameras. He said the technology, which is also being utilized by some officers in Fayetteville, provides transparency that takes the "he said, she said" out of interaction with the public.
"We're not hiding behind anything," he said during a press conference. "This shows that we're not hiding. This shows that we're willing to go up front and do what we need to do."
On Thursday morning, a group of protesters plan to leave Raleigh and head to St. Louis in hopes of making transparency a focus of peaceful protests and workshops. They're just a few of hundreds from across the country participating in the Labor Day Weekend event being hash tagged as #BlackLivesMatter on social media.
"We're hoping to bring the dialogue back to our own communities," said North Carolina coordinator, Tia Epps.
Lucas said part of the dialogue concerning race relations and law enforcement is already happening in African-American households.
"I think for me, as a mother of kids, young men, this is scary," she said, referring to the deaths of unarmed black males. "Every victim is worth capturing, and I think if we made more of an effort to do that, we'd understand the magnitude of the problem; where these shootings are happening, what was the catalyst for these shootings. I mean then we can start really having a dialogue."
Medlock said he understands the need for all of these conversations and peaceful protests as the Ferguson community awaits answers in the Brown case, but he doesn't believe all faith is lost in the law enforcement community.
"I think, by and large, if folks didn't respect us, there would be complete chaos and anarchy across the country," he said. "It's a horrible set of circumstances that led this all off, but I think we have to step back and wait to find out exactly what did happen."
