Good to know Nancy Vaughan is talking about GPD's relationship with the citizens it is meant to protect.

Now Greensboro should suspend arrests for small amounts of weed and r/o/d an officer, and make sure Chief Scott is serious about addressing the imbalance in traffic stops. 

Here in North Carolina’s third-largest city, officers pulled over African-American drivers for traffic violations at a rate far out of proportion with their share of the local driving population. They used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.

Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.

Notes:

• History in a nutshell: "This was the first Southern city to pledge to integrate its schools after the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, although it was among the last to actually do so."
• Charlotte/Meck's ratio of contraband found to searches of black drivers is ugly even compared to our own. 
• Always good to see the local daily NYT provide this kind of in-depth reporting on an important issue.

Comments

[Billy Jones]

From the linked NYT's article:

"... Two years ago, Greensboro equipped all of its officers with body cameras and required them to film any searches. But those videotapes are confidential, too.

Chief Scott said he believed that if the state allowed the police to share them, at least with the citizens involved in the encounters, it would help dispel suspicions of racial profiling. “I am in favor of more transparency,” he said. “Numbers don’t say it all.”

But here's the thing, while the State of North Carolina does consider body camera videos to be confidential the officer wearing the camera has the legal right to make the video public if the officer chooses to do so. Now if any police officer has acted within the law then why wouldn't he or she make the video public to prove his or her own innocence?

As a matter of fact: According to the News & Observer: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article19428897.html

"Under House Bill 713, which passed 115-2 Thursday, a law enforcement agency would have the discretion to release recordings if they serve a “public safety purpose,” Faircloth said in an interview. But they would not be considered public records. An officer would not be able to prevent release of recordings by claiming they are personnel records."

Now why would Greensboro Police Chief Wayne Scott risk getting caught lying in the New York Times? Could it be because they've got him by the balls?

Our Greensboro Police Officers are as good as if not better than police officers anywhere in the world. How they perform and how they do their jobs is determined by the policies and the people they must work under. It may well be our City Manager made a mistake in promoting Wayne Scott to the position of Chief of Police. How Chief Scott deals with this issue and the recent near fatal beating of Thomas Bynum and subsequent cover-up by his department will be his test.

And finally How Chief Scott deals with this issue and the recent near fatal beating of Thomas Bynum and subsequent cover-up by his department will be his test.

Like our Mayor, our new police Chief has a problem with speaking the truth.

[Hartzman]

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Simple Possession and Resisting/Delaying/Obstructing Public Officer statistics obtained by City of Greensboro mayoral candidate Devin King

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/simple-possession-and.html
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Who would have thought?

[Billy Jones]

And Greensboro's "leaders" remain silent, all knowing the truth has been spoken and they, including Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan are responsible for this travisty.