>>> A community forum led by Greensboro police Chief Ken Miller tonight at Trotter Community Center ranged over several topics, with a television reporter and a fired captain, along with his supporters, broadening the discussion in what was billed as a meeting geared towards the southern patrol division.In response to one resident’s question, Miller said he would want to move cautiously on a police substation for High Point Road and outlined some reservations.
“Facilities cost a lot of money and I want to be careful before the city makes that investment because the city really doesn’t have money to pitch out the window in regard to that investment, and although there are people who might even be willing to donate space, there becomes an expectation that we’re there," Miller said. "And if we’re there, it means a person is in a building instead of in a neighborhood. I’m a little concerned about how we manage that. We have to manage a substation. I would rather have people in your neighborhood then sitting at a substation, and not have a substation, because when you put ‘Greensboro Police Department’ on the side of a building, there’s an expectation that you be able to go up and pull the door open and go in and see someone.”
A Lamrocton resident said his car had recently been broken into, and he wanted to know when he would see additional patrols in area neighborhoods.
Miller noted that the 26.2-square-mile division has a lot of road to cover and explained that his priority is to have a patrol force with adequate flexibility to move with crime rather than being tied down in a particular location.
“Where I want my people concentrated is where crimes are concentrated,” he said. “And that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to put people in your neighborhood. Crimes will move around. They’ll pop up over here. They may pop up in your neighborhood. And if they pop up with any volume – again, we’re looking at it week to week – we’re going to put cars in your neighborhood. I know that doesn’t help you because you were broken into. These people move around; they tend to move around in clusters. We’re trying to stay on those clusters.”
Another question centered on a license checkpoint on Phillips Avenue, which lies in the eastern patrol division, that the department operated on Election Day. The checkpoint raised concerns about voter suppression in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and prompted numerous complaints to the department. Miller said the checkpoint was cut short as soon as the department was made aware of the conflict with voting.
Assistant Chief Ron Rogers, who oversees patrols for the department, took responsibility for the mistake.
“I absolutely missed the connection that it was Election Day,” he said. “I take full responsibility for that. Chief Miller had no control over it. Nobody in city government had control. It was a request through my chain of command. Every two weeks, that squad gets together to do a special assignment. They chose that location. I approved it. Looking back I wish I had put the two together because I would have canceled it. But as soon as I got word that it sent a negative message to the community, we broke it down."
A recent shooting in Greensboro’s downtown entertainment district prompted a news reporter to ask the chief whether had formulated a plan to address violent crime. Miller responded that he had met with nightclub owner Rocco Scarfone, Downtown Greensboro Inc. and members of city council, but reiterated that violent crime is down overall in Greensboro.
“You’ve got some very sensational crimes that have occurred in the past week or two that concern us, yes,” the chief said. “Are they the norm? No, I wouldn’t call that a trend yet. But they concern us. As far as a plan around the nightclubs… we’re working through a process quite frankly to address clubs. It’s not just the N Club. There are a number of clubs downtown that we’re going to have to pay attention to. And I think they’ll probably get some attention at the council meeting Tuesday night. So we’re not ignoring it.”
Much of Miller's presentation was taken up with changes to the department's discipline process that are now underway. The chief has appointed an 18-member committee led by Capt. Joe Smith and Capt. Wayne Scott. Miller said he hopes to implement the new discipline structure by January.
The chief outlined four basic areas of focus, starting with rules of conduct.
“Some of it was compressed together where you had insubordination, discourtesy, harassment and what I would equate to profiling all in one sentence," he said. "I wanted to have greater specificity because that doesn’t help me or this organization learn, one, where problems are happening, if they are lumped together like that.”
Next, he talked about the investigative process.
“Polygraph has come up around our investigative process," Miller said. "I think there’s a time and place for polygraphs. I just don’t think it’s all the time. And I think there are certain boundaries around polygraphs. And we’ve talked about that, and we’re doing it. We’ve laid out what those are. A polygraph is not something any supervisor in the organization ought to be able to order up. It should be me, because I’m accountable for it…. There are some things that I believe are out of bounds. I think deception in our investigative process internally is out of bounds.”
Miller said he sees it as a conflict of interest for him to both recommend discipline and hear appeals.
“When I say the police chief is a balance point, I don’t believe that I ought to be sitting in every hearing and deciding the cases because when I do that I’m not on the appeal track," he said. "I can’t balance the interest of the organization. And the only person who can balance the interest of the organization is either the city manager or the assistant city manager. They ought to be operating on different issues than discipline. That has consumed an awful lot of their time this past year.”
He said he wants discipline to be consistent, but cautioned against a "cookie-cutter" approach.
“I want people to be heard before we apply discipline," Miller said. "And I want discipline applied consistently, recognizing that most every situation that occurs in policing unfolds in a rather unique way. It’s not cookie-cutter, so a matrix just doesn’t work. Just like in the courts, is there an aggravating or mitigating circumstance – in this case, it’s an officer’s behavior – that affects the level of discipline…. To apply discipline fairly, you have to look at the aggravating and mitigating circumstances under which the employee acted. We’re they acting in the public interest or were they acting in their own self interests? Did they hijack the Constitution in the name of public [safety]? Did they make an unlawful search or arrest because they can’t get the goods on a bad offender any other way? Every now and again that happens around the country. But if you have a person who makes a mistake on an arrest that’s truly trying to do everything right, you don’t want to treat them the same way. Somebody’s trying to do everything right, and somebody’s trying to hijack the Constitution. They’re just very different situations."
The chief concluded, "There are still some management-employee relations issues. Some of those are race related. We're going to have some race-relations discussions in the department. We can't deal with it if it's not on the table. We can't stick our heads in the sand. Not saying anybody has in the past. But we can't."
Charles Cherry, a former captain who was recently fired, sat in the center of the room. After Miller’s presentation, Cherry made an allegation that Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts is documented violating state personnel policy in a YouTube video. Miller refused to engage Cherry, and similarly rebuffed questions posed by the Revs. Cardes Brown and Randall Keeney.
Miller also said the department is in the process of implementing CompStat management program, and to create a priority offender strategy in concert with the district attorney’s office.
One topic that did not come up is a recent Title VI civil rights complaint filed with the US Justice Department against the department on behalf of the North Carolina Latin Kings by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. The complaint alleges that the department's gang unit has discriminated against the Latin Kings on the basis of race by bringing baseless charges against them, subjecting them to unlawful stops, non-consensual searches and false arrests often using excessive force.
"My position is they've reached out to Justice like they've done before, to say, 'We're a street gang and we're being picked on,'" Miller said. "We'll see what happens. We have complaints on file. We've tried to investigate, and they won't talk to us."
At the end of the meeting, supporters of black and Latino police officers who have been subjected to adverse action handed out fliers for a different kind of community meeting on Nov. 11. Among the items on the agenda is a discussion about filing additional complaints documenting discriminatory treatment of citizens to send to the Justice Department.
The flier state that officials from two different areas of the Justice Department are expected at the meeting, and that Mayor Bill Knight, City Manager Rashad Young and Chief Ken Miller have also been invited.
