Raleigh picks ‘independent’ team to review police actions in protests — and most are ex-cops
City Manager Ruffin Hall has picked Chicago-based consultant 21CP Solutions to review the Raleigh Police Department’s handling of recent protests against police brutality following the killing of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis.
The selection drew immediate criticism from City Council member Saige Martin and several community members who spoke during Tuesday’s council meeting.
The firm is made up primarily of former police chiefs, Martin noted. Of the seven team partners listed in the firm’s Scope of Work to the city manager, only one is not a former police chief or associated with a police association.
“I think calling them ‘completely independent’ is a bit of a stretch,” said Martin.
“I know that our goal is to bring in something that is fair and accurate of an assessment and I think that is what people want,” he added.
In a public comment period and on social media, several community members and protest organizers also criticized the choice.
“I refuse to accept 21CP as the vendor for the investigative consultant,” said Zainab Baloch, who ran for Raleigh mayor in 2019. “It’s a waste of money and I refuse to watch #Raleigh pretend that a review by a consultant that favors police will make any type of progress in bettering community relations in Black and Brown communities.”
Martin, along with Council members Nicole Stewart and Jonathan Melton, held a meeting this month for the community to discuss law enforcement’s response to the protests. Over 100 people spoke, with many calling for Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown and Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin to resign On the first two nights of protests, May 30 and May 31, law-enforcement officers in Raleigh deployed tear gas and sponge grenades against protesters.
Deck-Brown last week proposed the city hire an outside firm to evaluate the response to the protests. The firm will review the department’s policies and actions and report its findings and recommendations by September. The city has agreed to pay the firm $87,500, with additional funding potentially allocated once the work begins. The firm’s Scope of Work includes a community engagement process but doesn’t describe it in detail.
Previous work in North Carolina, Minnesota
This will not be the first time 21CP Solutions has worked with a North Carolina police department.
In 2017, former officer Christopher Hickman beat and choked Johnnie Rush, an unarmed Black man, in Asheville. In its report, the firm found that the personnel file, records, and body-camera footage of Hickman, who later pleaded guilty to assault by strangulation, showed “harmful” and “detrimental” behaviors.
But the report did not address more broadly how police interact with Black communities and the consultants did not speak with minority residents or with Rush, according to The Citizen-Times. The consultants said their contract did not ask for an investigation into relations between the police and Black residents of Asheville.
21CP Solutions was also hired by the state of Minnesota to develop recommendations and action steps aimed at reducing deadly-force encounters with law enforcement.
The group released its recommendations in February 2020, four months before a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with the murder and three others were charged with aiding and abetting murder in Floyd’s death.
Raleigh police chief sought outside review
Deck-Brown requested an outside review in a June 8 memo to City Manager Ruffin Hall.
The city “has experienced unprecedented times regarding what began as a peaceful rally and march (May 30) that suddenly shifted to individuals storming the Wake County Public Safety Center and the deployment of tear gas by another law enforcement agency,” she wrote in the memo.
In a memo to the mayor and council, Hall suggested the city act quickly, saying outside experts will be in high demand across the country.
Other cities including Philadelphia, Stamford, Connecticut, and Bennington, Vermont, plan to hire independent consultants to investigate their police departments’ responses to recent protests or to assist with the review and reform of their departments’ policies
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Raleigh picks ‘independent’ team to review police actions in protests — and most are ex-cops."
