Police: Defunding won’t solve issues

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  • Local law enforcement officers joined forces to help children during Shop with a Cop in December.
    Local law enforcement officers joined forces to help children during Shop with a Cop in December.
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    While cities across the nation are considering whether to defund police departments in response to demands from protestors who feel that law enforcement agencies are systemically racist, officials in Andrews and Murphy are increasing funds allocated to policing.
    For the 2020-21 fiscal year budget, both towns appropriated an extra $20,000 to policing initiatives compared to the prior fiscal year’s expenditures. Murphy plans to purchase new equipment with the increased budget, while Andrews plans to hire additional personnel.
    “We’re getting 85 to 100 emergency calls a week,” Andrews Police Chief Michael Hobgood said. “For a town this size, that’s crazy. I don’t have a full-time investigator, and with me patrolling the streets, we don’t even have time to do follow-ups.
    “People are calling the county requesting an update on their case because we’re understaffed. We only have four officers on the road. I don’t think the public understands we can’t be in all places at once.”
    While each of the law enforcement officials who spoke with the Cherokee Scout share the national outrage over George Floyd’s death, none of them believe cutting police department budgets is the answer to the problem. In fact, they each said budgets need to be increased if lawmakers and citizens expect to improve policing.
    “A lot of people are frustrated, but they’re speaking out of emotion rather than reason,” Murphy Police Chief Justin Jacobs said. “Regardless of what agency you work for, you never have enough funds to accomplish what you want to do, but that’s just how life works.
    “If you defund the police, and you have a group that intends on creating anarchy, who will you call?”
    In addition to needing extra personnel, local law enforcement officials agree with the national sentiment that better training is needed. While North Carolina law enforcement officials regularly attend in-service training that covers a range of topics, local leaders believe more funding is needed to further train officers in de-escalation techniques, race relations, cultural diversity and crisis intervention.
    They also feel officers should receive training in combat techniques such as wrist locks, arm bends and “soft” martial arts maneuvers to lessen their dependence on “hard” techniques such as punches and carotid holds, which already have been prohibited by numerous law enforcement agencies across America.
    “Training is lacking, and some officers find themselves in trouble with the law by not knowing de-escalation techniques,” Hobgood said.
    Local officials strongly believe individual officers should receive mandatory mental health and psychological evaluations every few years to ensure they are in the right mindset to handle the daily stress that accompanies the job. Most citizens recognize that military personnel who serve in combat zones experience post-traumatic stress, but oftentimes that same disorder goes unnoticed among state and municipal law enforcement officials.
    Murphy assistant police chief Dustin Smith experienced the ultra-high level of stress that accompanies police work as a rookie sheriff’s deputy in April 2001. He suffered a shotgun blast to the chest during a routine traffic stop that turned into a high-speed chase. Following a crash, a shootout ensued, and Smith nearly killed a bystander in the suspect’s vehicle.
    “That passenger didn’t know how close he came to dying that day; we have to make split-second decisions to protect ourselves or someone else,” Smith said, adding that he eventually learned to forgive the man who tried to kill him. “I think we need to have mandatory evaluations as we progress through our career. We try to fix everyone else’s problems and typically forget about our own issues.
    “We wear a mask at work. Probably 80-90 percent of law enforcement officers have some form of PTSD. We need to address that more than we do now. We sometimes become cold-hearted over time, where things that would affect normal people in society don’t affect a law enforcement officer in the same manner, and it impacts our personal life.”
    While officers may recognize their internal struggles and mental health issues overtime, they often keep it to themselves out of fear of losing their job. Fear of repercussions from supervisors and co-workers is also one of the reasons why law enforcement personnel often refuse to report immoral or even illegal behavior conducted by fellow officers.
    “When you try to do the right thing, people bombard you,” Sheriff Derrick Palmer said. “So some people say, ‘Well, I don’t want to be involved in it.’ When illegal, immoral or unethical things are happening, we rely on employees to report it to supervisors. If problems are not being fixed, you have to figure out where the chain is broken.”
    Ed Figueroa of Ranger – who has worked with the Miami Police Department, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Department of Defense – echoed those sentiments.
    “The code of silence, which is a cultural thing within the police department, prohibits you from [speaking out] because it becomes a career-ender,” he said, adding that he’s never seen an officer promoted or rewarded for reporting misconduct. “The problem is there’s a subculture within law enforcement that the good cops are fearful of the bad cops.”
    With the level of pressure faced by law enforcement officers across the nation, it’s no wonder morale is down in just about every department. In addition to various other reforms, local officials feel law enforcement salaries need to increase, while the number of years required to qualify for full retirement benefits needs to decrease.
    “We’re human and it scares us that if we make a mistake in a split-second life or death situation, our future will be in the hands of a politician,” Smith said. “That’s why you see more officers nationwide getting out of the profession. They are saying, ‘Hey, it’s not worth it.’ ”
    Officials say at least one person in each local department has contemplated starting a new career in the last 12 months. Local leaders worry that continued low pay, coupled with a 30-year requirement to receive full retirement benefits, will create a catastrophic void once mass exodus from the law enforcement profession begins.
    “You get what you pay for,” Palmer said. “Agencies around the country are not getting stacks of applications coming in. If we’re not going to invest in salaries and retirement to entice people to do the job, we’re going to get what’s left over – the people who can’t get a job somewhere else and may not be in law enforcement for the right reason.
    “We’re experiencing something in America right now that we’ve never experienced before. Just about every single officer I know is trying to find another job. Nationally, officers are getting crucified by the press, on social media and through the judicial system. They’re like, ‘Why am I doing this for $30,000 a year?’ ”
    Figueroa agreed that police departments must attract people who will do the right thing from the start.
    “You can take someone with bad values and bad upbringing and give them all the training in the world, and once you give them the power of the badge, that’s going to come out and you’re going to have problems with that individual,” he said. “If you have a good individual to begin with and you train them, that’s the ultimate police officer.”
    While it seems that every day there’s a new instance of police brutality somewhere in the country, officials urge citizens to remember that national media only reports part  of the story. According to the latest available data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, among the 53.5 million residents over age 16 who had contact with police between 2014-15, less than 2 percent experienced threats or use of force.
    “It’s incredibly rare that we come across a truly bad actor,” said District Attorney Ashley Welch, who is in the process of visiting local agencies in hopes of increasing morale within departments. “Oftentimes what you see are bad judgment calls. I can think of only one instance where I prosecuted a law enforcement officer who was just truly a bad human being.
    “Most cops are really good people, and what they do is really important work. One bad apple can make everyone think that all law enforcement is bad, and that’s just not true.”