Former, current police chiefs speak out amid planned protests

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As organizers plan another day of demonstrations in downtown Raleigh -- and with more protests planned in the Triangle, and across the country this weekend -- ABC11 spoke with Police Chief Rico Boyce about the challenges of policing those protests.

It comes amid the ongoing clashes in Los Angeles that have led to a military presence in the city and thrown many parts of that area into chaos.

"That's always our goal to make sure individuals can exercise their right peacefully as well as being safe," Chief Boyce said ahead of a planned protest in Moore Square, which is in response to recent immigration enforcement measures from state and federal leaders.

Boyce vowed to protect the First Amendment rights of Raleigh residents, but said they would remain prepared to respond to any situation and were there to protect public safety.

"I have very confident and capable personnel within the Raleigh Police Department that can de-escalate situations before they become bigger problems," Boyce said.

The RPD chief is no stranger to intense protests. He was with the department in 2020, through the social justice movement and protests that followed the death of George Floyd. Those are experiences, Boyce said provided himself and the department with some valuable lessons.

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"Like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. We've been handling protests since 2020 as well as before," he said.

ABC11 asked Boyce about the ongoing turmoil in Los Angeles and how his department can use that as a lesson to avoid a repeat scenario in the Triangle.

"You do look at what's happening in your peer cities and how they respond to it and, you know, things that work well. You know, you think like, 'could that work here in our jurisdiction?' When things don't go so well, you think, 'well I definitely don't want to do that in here in Raleigh, '" he said.

ABC11 also sat down with former Apex Police Chief Jason Armstrong, who now works as a police consultant but previously led the department in Ferguson, Missouri, through an intense wave of protests in 2020.

"The top lesson is knowing that everybody that's out there in the crowd is not doing the same thing, like there are levels to what's going on when you have a protest," he said.

After protests and civil unrest paralyzed Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown in 2014, Armstrong said they were better equipped to handle what followed in 2020. He expects the same to be true for Triangle police departments today.

"For the individuals that have to navigate those circumstances, especially the leaders that are charged with making the decisions out there, you always learn something in those spaces, whether you got it right or you got it wrong. You are learning something," he said.