Attempted shootings of DPD officers bring tensions to light

A month after two Durham Police Department officers were targeted in shootings, the department's relationship with the community has been called into question.

In the last week of December 2014, two DPD officers were shot at in separate incidents—leading to speculation from some that the incidents emerged from tensions between police and the Durham community following national unrest regarding police shootings of black men in Ferguson, Mo. and New York City. As suspects for the shootings have not been identified, the motivation for the crimes remains unclear. Durham Chief of Police Jose Lopez, however, has cautioned against assuming the shootings in Durham are connected to protests in other parts of the country.

“The events in Ferguson didn’t happen in Durham," Lopez said. "I really don’t believe Durham needs to be piled into something else that happened in this country. The truth is, here in Durham, we’re extremely unique in that we do foster a very good relationship with the community.“

'Anti-police sentiment on some level in our culture'

Although Lopez acknowledged the possibility of anti-police sentiment as an influence on the suspect's actions, he added that such sentiments are unlikely to be pervasive or common in the community.

“There are individuals out here who just aren’t stable, and they start to listen to a lot of the rhetoric that’s coming out and a lot of the hate messages that are coming out,” Lopez said.

"There is clearly an anti-police sentiment on some level in our culture right now." —Larry Smith

Lopez added that the shootings will in no way change the way the police act toward the community.

Community Relations

Although DPD maintains that it has a positive relationship with the community, the Durham community's perceptions of the police are mixed.

Quanica Peterson, a Durham resident, said DPD hasn’t been as active in the community as she would like .

“They need to have a meeting, and they need to put more of these young kids together to stop violence in the neighborhood," Peterson said. "They need to be more interactive.”

Patsy Ziegler, another Durham resident, noted, however, that DPD has been doing a good job serving everyone’s interests. Although the department has faced difficulties in the past working with black and minority constituents, it has done its best to work with those groups, she said.

Lopez cited a long history of collaboration between the DPD and the community to ensure that its needs and concerns are adequately addressed.

“We have individuals in the city and groups in the city that sometimes become very vocal about whatever it is they are concerned about—and we listen to their concerns," he said. "Sometimes it's to their benefit, and sometimes it's not to their benefit, but we do address them."

Beverly Thompson, director of public affairs for Durham, added that the police department is making every effort to do public outreach and educate the community about police procedures.

After the shootings, there was an outpouring of support for DPD officers from members of the community, Lopez said. Earlier this month, a number of Durham residents gathered to show support for the police.

Lopez added that he "firmly believed" that the majority of Durham citizens support their police department—even if they didn't have time to actively express that support.

"The majority of the people in the city don’t have time to go downtown with a sign," Lopez said. “They are living lives, and they are very much grateful that their lives can go uninterrupted because the police can protect them. You don’t hear these individuals.”

Spenser Bradford, executive director of Durham Congregations in Action—an organization involved in advocating for changes in policing policy—said that DPD has been responsive to some of the group’s concerns and requests but that there is still some resistance to change from the department.

“There have been statements made that continue to express a willingness to adapt and change,” Bradford said. “But there also continue to be challenges raised to the validity of the complaints that have been raised for the last two years, and those types of challenges from police leadership continue to raise concerns then about how seriously they are taking the need for change.”

Tensions: Past and Present

With an increased national spotlight on racial profiling by police, DPD has been called into question at several points.

A March 2014 report by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice found that black males account for 17.4 percent of Durham’s population but make up more than 65 percent of the population stopped and searched by police. The City Council discussed the topic in August following months of hearings by the city's Human Rights Commission, and City Manager Thomas Bonfield issued a series of recommendations to improve the situation.

Although Lopez agreed that black individuals and other minorities are disproportionately stopped by police, he cautioned against reading too much into the statistics.

“There is no doubt there is disparity, but the science really shows that disparity does not mean bias,” Lopez said. “We really have to look at individual actions, and we address anything having to do with bias definitively. We train our officers with regards to it.”

In response to the public’s concerns, however, the city is taking steps to combat racism within the police force. Last year, the Human Relations Commission released its final report, recommending a number of DPD policy changes. Since the release of the report, the DPD has implemented some of these recommendations—including written consent forms for traffic stops and new training programs for officers.

Although progress has been made, there is still room for further collaboration between the DPD and the Durham community, Bradford said.

"As members of the Durham community, we have to be willing to have officers and systems of authority that have accountability—that are willing to be criticized [and] to change," Bradford said.