Raleigh police want to hear from you about new de-escalation of force policies. Here’s how
Raleigh police want to hear from residents about new de-escalation of force policies.
The Raleigh Police Department will seek input at several listening session meetings throughout the city from June 8 to June 23. Each session will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The next meeting will be held on June 14.
The de-escalation policy development is part of a larger initiative to reform policies at the police department, said Lt. Jason Borneo. It’s a result of a federal grant received in 2021 by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The RPD de-escalation listening sessions will be an opportunity for the community to view the draft policy and provide feedback,” Borneo told The News & Observer.
The policy’s project manager, Lt. Eric Goodwin, and the department’s community policing and LGBTQ liaison Michael Ballen will facilitate the meetings, he said.
A COPS grant application filed by the city of Raleigh estimated that over $118,420 is needed for the de-escalation training.
The application indicates that the short-term goals of the training are to:
▪ “increase the knowledge and skills of police personnel needed to strategically slow down incidents and to maximize the use of time, distance, and space in order to allow for the tactical flexibility to optimize public safety outcomes;
▪ “to positively impact the attitudes and motivation of police personnel in a manner that aligns with and promotes the sanctity of human life;
▪ “to increase self-awareness (mindfulness) of police personnel, situational awareness during dynamic police situations, and social awareness reflective of the interdependence between the police and the public.”
Its mid-term goals are proposed to “positively impact the behavior of police personnel during dynamic and stressful situations” while long-term goals are proposed to enhance the legitimacy and trust of the police department among the public.
The first meeting was held at the Millbrook Exchange Community Center on Wednesday. Afterward, Raleigh city councilman David Cox, who represents District B, said he was concerned that police did not allow residents to keep copies of the draft policy that was distributed to the few dozen people at the meeting.
Asked for his opinion on the policy, Cox said he didn’t know.
“Like everyone else, I turned in my copy (of the policy),” he said. “Didn’t get a chance to really study it.”
Cox said he contacted the city manger and the police chief to express his disappointment.
“If we’re going to have six public meetings to review this policy, which I think is an important policy ... I guess the question is the citizen engagement approach,” Cox told The N&O Thursday. “My personal preference is let’s put it on the website, let people read it, so they can come to the meetings informed about it and have a chance to think about it.”
Borneo told The N&O in an email that the department didn’t allow attendees to keep a copy of the policy because it’s not finalized.
“The draft policy is not the finalized document, and we anticipate changes,” he said. “We anticipate the completion of the policy around July. The policy will be available upon approval by the City Manager at the end of the process.”
RPD’s use of force
The police department’s use-of-force policy has come under scrutiny from residents and social justice activists in the fatal shooting of Daniel Turcios on Jan. 11.
Turcios was killed by a police officer following an accident on Interstate 440. After Turcios was seen carrying a knife, officers repeatedly asked him to drop it. An officer tased him, and as Turcios lunged at officers with the knife, he was fatally shot.
Family members said officers could have done more to defuse the situation before shooting him. They said Turcios may have not understood the commands because he spoke little to no English and he was disoriented from the crash.
More recently, Raleigh Police officers were seen in body camera footage giving conflicting commands to Reuel Rodriguez-Núñez, a man who threw Molotov cocktails at vehicles and police officers last month before they fatally shot him.
Outside the Southeast police station, one officer shouted de-escalation commands at Rodriguez-Núñez.
But another officer, identified as Master Officer P. W. Coates, is heard in his worn body camera footage yelling “Do it! Do it!” and “Go ahead!” at the suspect along with profanities, shortly before officers fired at him.
Civil rights group Emancipate NC is hosting a news conference Friday at 9 a.m. near the police station where Rodriguez-Núñez was shot. The group is criticizing the police officers’ use of force and Coates’ escalation in the confrontation.
The man’s brother, Jasiel Rodriguez-Núñez, will be present along with other family members, according to Kerwin Pittman, an Emancipate NC activist and spokesperson.
“I got a feeling that RPD knows they messed up,” said Pittman in an interview.
He said it appeared that the officer “bullied” someone in crisis “so he could justify killing him.”
Raleigh police’s use-of-force policies dictate that force is only used “when all other means of resolving a situation have been exhausted or are clearly inapplicable,” while acknowledging that officers “are required to make split-second decisions in quickly evolving circumstances,” The N&O reported previously.
“Force will be used only to the degree necessary to control the situation,” the policy states. Officers are instructed to use firearms only “as a last resort, when other means have failed or are inapplicable.”
Federal data shows that only 33 North Carolina agencies reported use-of-force data to the FBI, reported ABC11, The News & Observer’s news partner.
Community meetings
Here are the rest of the meetings this month:
▪ June 14 —Marsh Creek Community Center at 3050 N. New Hope Road.
▪ June 15 — Barwell Road Community Center at 5857 Barwell Park Road.
▪ June 21 — Pullen Community Center at 408 Ashe Ave.
▪ June 22 — Lake Lynn Community Center at 7921 Ray Road.
▪ June 23 — John Chavis Community Center at 505 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
A previous version of this story had an incorrect address for the Lake Lynn Community Center.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Raleigh police want to hear from you about new de-escalation of force policies. Here’s how."
