Police Chief Brian James at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 14 was finally allowed to talk about the racial disparities in police traffic stops.
The topic played a major role in the discussions about requiring police officers to obtain a signed written consent form before conducting a consent search – a resolution that was narrowly voted down by the City Council.
James had started to talk about the racial disparity in police interactions with the public during several of the previous discussions, but this time he was allowed to finish.
In an answer to a question from Councilmember Sharon Hightower about why so many black people get stopped, James said, “I will say this, police work is part of this big puzzle in racial disparity. But when I look at where all of the crime is occurring, not all of the crime but a lot of the crime is occurring, but I’m just going to tell you as a black man it’s occurring in neighborhoods where black people live. That’s where a lot of our crime is occurring, particularly our violent crime. Again we talked about where we are on homicides right now, and I will tell you there is a disproportionality in who are victims of homicides and it is also disproportionate in where they are occurring.
“Just from an operational standpoint, each day when I’m looking at crime stats and my people are looking at crime stats and we are also listening to complaints from citizens, we are going to send officers to those areas where the crime is occurring. And that is, in and of itself, is going to create a disproportionality in who we contact on a daily basis.
“Now as far as what’s going on in neighborhoods and things like that, that’s much bigger than the Police Department and I think we all have to work together.
“But from a police standpoint, I have to send officers to the areas where crime is actually occurring and that is where the disparities are coming in.”
Earlier in the discussion Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter had talked about the fact that of the 39 homicides in Greensboro this year 34 of the homicide victims were African-American men.
The issues are how to de escalate violent arrest by the police. Should a mental health person accompany the police.
Police should be trained with working with the mentally ill.
This is a wonderful idea! Insert eye roll here. The Police have extensive training in this area and those that have been around a while have experience that cannot be replaced with bleeding heart training. Most mental health professionals are borderline ready for the nuthouse.
“Most mental health professionals are borderline ready for the nuthouse.”
Loudest voice wins!
If you qualify the amount and quality of mental health training police receive as “extensive” then I’m just curious what word you would use to describe their training to use their weapons. You’ll find that the amount of times officers need to unholster their weapon is much much smaller than the amount of training they receive in using their weapon to violently end any situation.
Never-ending …. So why do police have weapons? To iun-holster them (what good does that do?) Or to defend themselves and others from violence?
@what the, and we wonder why the world is like it is. They DO NOT have extensive training in dealing with Mental Health patients. Unfortunately this State along with most others believes providing mental health services means giving the person a bus ticket to another state or a trip to the hospital via police or EMS. There is special training provided by NAMI, but the police organization has to make it a part of the training. It is NOT a given and even in police departments that do signup usually only send some officers not all. I do hope sir that none of your loved ones ever has a mental illness because by your remarks they will have NO support. https://www.nami.org/Advocacy/Crisis-Intervention/Crisis-Intervention-Team-(CIT)-Programs
I guess Hightower reasons (but not well) that the number of stops should be equal to the racial proportion in Greensboro.
Chief James tells it like it is, and with well chosen words. Remember, it was Hightower who wanted the former chief to stop pulling over people in East Greensboro because of minor infractions such as no tag or tag expired, windows too dark, out of date registration, etc. He did for about 6 months, and the statistics didn’t change.
So if I just start calling the cops more on my white neighbors then the cops will start pulling over more white people. That seems to be what the chief implies by saying they are listening to complaints by citizens.
Also, just like coronavirus testing increasing the number of sick people….. if they spent 90% of their time in white neighborhoods arresting white people then the stats would clearly show that the white neighborhoods are where the crime is happening. It’s a chicken and egg thing. Go arrest only white people for a year and then tell me that crime stats based on the arrests you made are telling you that black people are the problem.
You’re confused by how systemic problems work.
So by your logic, Tired, if police would hang out in Starmount or Irving Park there would be no murders on Randleman Rd or drug sales on MLK Jr Dr. How about robberies off Merritt Dr, or shootings on Vanstory? Police are mostly reactionary, they go where the crime has already happened.
That isn’t what that stats would tell you though, if you just stopped arresting black people.
That’s kind of backwards thinking. Violent crime numbers drive where the police go and work. Police work does not drive violent crime numbers. They go where the problem is. And by violent crime, I’m talking murder, robbery, serious assaults.
For example, most of the murders and non lethal shootings are happening in specific areas around the city. They are not evenly distributed throughout the city. So the police are focusing in those specific areas, not evenly patroling the whole town. No murders and robberies in Irving Park means no cops need to be swarming Irving Park. They get put on MLK where the shootongs happen.
You know why there are no cops in Irving Park? Because there is no obvious publicly committed crime. You know why there is no publicly committed crime? Because the residents in those neighborhoods do not tolerate it. They call the cops the second they see something suspicious. They activate the criminal justice system at the drop of a gum wrapper. They also hold their neighbors accountable and will turn them in for a crime in a heartbeat if it hurts the neighborhood. That is what keeps their area relatively crime free.
Like I have said elsewhere, police have very limited time and resources that they have to apply judiciously. So to put it bluntly, if your butt is on fire and you only have one cup of water, don’t waste it splashing water on your face. Put the water where the fire is.
Bingo! Thank you, Chief.
Thank you, Chief James for your comments. I appreciate the fact that the GPD is trying to solve crime in our city, where it’s occurring. It makes me feel as if your endeavors, are to reduce crime wherever it happens, without seeing color, but finding a resolution.
I guess what Mr James had to say was a little more than was expected by the city council.How could Mr James soft soap the fact that 87% of homicides occur in a particular neighborhood.If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck ,it doesn’t take a room full of scholars to figure out that a duck is in our midst.If and when those in that neighborhood teach their children to respect authority ,then the killings go down .As I watch the news about the minorities getting killed or maimed by a police,all of them are disobeying the command by a police person .All would be alive if they had just stopped and listen to the command they were given.It seems that this minority has been told by their parents and mentors,You don’t have to listen to preachers,teachers ,supervisors (on a job),and especially police (in particular if he is white,but a minority police is just as bad).Parents why don’t you rear a child to respect their elders ,and others they meet along life’s journey.Some adults have the same problem that they don’t respect.Respect is not submission but a means to an end. We all could use a dose of that medicine on occasion. We need to work in our neighborhood to get all people proactive and not always reactive.Lets all work together,our children are young once and need guidance to live a full and productive live.It takes a neighborhood to rear children .So if one group does not want to teach their children respect and right from wrong the we will be experiencing what is happening in the larger cities.Lets go and get it done for the future of our neighborhood,city,state,and nation.God bless all of you who read this ,I am really pulling for all of us to live in peace and harmony.
“Facts are stubborn things” – Ronald Reagan. The police chief laid out the politically incorrect truth. Black people commit more crime, and more biolent crime, than others.
And why are so many black drivers pulled over? It’s the same dynamic. If you don’t believe me, perform this experiment yourself :
The next time you’re quietly driving along the Interstate and you notice a vehicle approaching VERY rapidly from behind, well over the speed limit, just check the race of the driver as they fly by.
And draw your own conclusions.
They can hardly complain when they’re pulled over. “It’s racism!” ….. Yeah, right.
I’ve actually done that. Locally on I-40 and I-85 it’s pretty obvious. Now when you do the same thing on that stretch of 40 between Raleigh and Wilmington it’s more young white women.
What can I tell you? Every time it happens to me, it’s an African-American driving.
How do you know that? I think you mean their skin color is dark. They could be African or Black/Hispanic, they could be a dark skinned friend from Canada or Europe. They could be an overly tanned white person with slightly tinted windows.
All you see is race race race no matter what.
Guess my skin color, geographic origin of my ancestors, and my nationality. If you get 2 out of three, I’ll be amazed.
Send me a photo of your face, and I’ll tell you.
Right! Everybody speeds. Myself excluded, of course….
Does everybody drive at 90+ mph?
Check it out for yourself.
That’s all I ask.
A Look at in review on 421 S as you get run over nets you large pickups with redneck males.
I do this all the time. I am no slow driver at all, but I keep it reasonable and maybe just above much of the traffic. Now in my observation, any time I see some hoopty flying up on me from behind weaving through traffic about 20+ MPH over the speed limit it is at least 98% of the time a black person. And with that attention getting behavior and speed they wonder why they are stopped?
Thank You Chief James for standing up for the truth and using good common sense! Its sad he was the only voice of reason in the room. Maybe one day he can educate the peanut gallery. Better yet, we can all educate them come election day the next couple of cycles.
If Chief James keeps telling the truth, the City Council will fire him. Sad but true.
Well duh. The people who commit the crimes are the people who police arrest. People who resist and try to flee are the people who get held down, subdued, or shot in self-defense by police officers doing their job. Why are so many blacks in jail? Because so many crimes are committed by blacks. Until black people learn to respect police, their neighbors, and others, there is no cure for this so-called disparity. There’s a video posted recently on several social media sites of two black women in Greensboro fighting like dogs in a car wash parking lot at Gar Street. What are they teaching their children by their behavior? The saddest part, there is a group of black people gathered around them egging them on like it’s a dog fight in some NFL player’s backyard. Maybe Sharon Hightower needs to ask those women why they are behaving that way instead of asking why black people get arrested.
Chief James, thank you and thank goodness for you! Its refreshing to know that the leader of our local law enforcement has the hudspa to stand up and make his detractors face the log in their own eye.
Thanks for quoting Chief James directly without interpreting it for us; that is a rare thing in today’s media. Thank you Chief James for laying it all out, even though what you are saying is politically incorrect. You are a brave man. City Council members need to read your words out loud every day until they get the message, then stay out of your way and let you and your officers do their jobs.
“Just the facts.” Sgt. Joe Friday
One thing that seems apparent from all the protests and riots is that our country has elected so many incompetent mayors who seem eager to interfere with the police.
It isn’t necessarily the case that “black people commit more of the crimes” in America.
What is true is that the types of crimes perpetrated by low-income Americans tends to be more violent and open-air drug-related than those in higher income areas. And, low-income areas in urban areas are predominantly populated by minorities. As such, crimes perpetrated by minorities tend to be more visible and likely to elicit citizen and police response than crimes committed by higher-income individuals in suburban and rural areas.
Let’s not confuse 911 call volume and observable crime statistics with absolute crime statistics.
Sure is nice for the council to finally let the expert speak about his area of expertise. Since Chief James got the job, good things have happened the few times council has let him actually do that job.
so news from inside gpd. brian the spineless, is implementing the policy which the council voted against. way to stand up for your people brian, just be the bitch of the city council