Policing Reform | Eastern North Carolina Now

• Eric Garner
• Dontre Hamilton
• Michael Brown Jr
• Ezell Ford
• Freddie Gray
• Jonathan Ferrell

    All persons of color that were unarmed and killed by police. These are just a select few the countless lives that have been lost. All lives that did not necessarily have to be lost.

    This past week, I had the opportunity to sit down with over 150 North Carolina police commanders and fellow legislators to discuss law enforcement tactics. This was part of a conference "Best Practices in Law Enforcement Training" that was co-hosted by the N.C. Black Legislative Caucus and the N.C. League of Municipalities. This is just the start of the conversation.

    North Carolina has some real issues to address and we need policies that start with training. Jon Gregory, the Director of the Law Enforcement Academy at Wake Tech pointed out: in North Carolina you need 1,000 hours to cut hair, but to be a police officer you only need 616. We have several crucial trainings that need to be improved and implemented for all our officers. To start with all officers should receive training to deal with the mentally ill and de-escalation training.

• We need to develop way to recruit, retain and support our police officers especially people of color and women.
• We need community oversight boards that ensure transparency and trust.
• We need to develop clear guidelines surrounding the use and availability of police body cameras and the video captured.
• We live in a society that laws often focus on criminalization and penalties. Not reform. When we look at offenses such as possession of marijuana often times the arrest rate is much higher in communities of color. Yet, usage rates are about the same across all backgrounds.

    These steps and this conversation is a start. We will have more to come.

• Contact: Kelly Alexander
•     info@votekellyalexander.com