Here's what you missed at Tuesday's community policing advisory committee meeting

On Tuesday, the Chapel Hill Community Policing Advisory Committee met to discuss crime and community safety. Here's what you missed:

Safety on campus

In response to UNC campus visitors questioning their safety following several incidents in the fall, Jabe Hunter, assistant police chief of the Chapel Hill Police Department, said CHPD and the UNC Police Department are not taking the safety of the community lightly.

He clarified that though the two entities have separate jurisdictions, they work closely together.

"When it comes to stuff like this, it's very much a partnership between us and them in that our own jurisdictions overlap in some sense, so we're right there with each other," he said. "None of our planning is done in a vacuum."

He said in addition to increasing patrols, he is excited about the potential of a new investment toward electric scooters.

“We’ve always had bicycle officers," Hunter said. "What this does is give us the ability to extend that range greatly."

Community listening sessions

The committee continued by discussing the future of their community outreach listening sessions, where they engage with town residents directly by inviting the community to speak with the board. They may seek 30 minutes of a Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP meeting to serve as a future listening session.

“These sessions were created to bridge the divide between the goals of the committee and the actual needs of the community,” committee member Paris Miller said.

Committee member Joshua Romero recommended a programming committee that would work alongside the CHPD to host community events. 

Updates on data

Earlier in the meeting, Vice Chair Allan Chrisman began a discussion on traffic stop data in Chapel Hill. Andre Masnari, a crime analyst with CHPD, gave a report proposing changing the quarterly report into a yearly report, but the board expressed concerns about the lack of actionable data this could result in.

Board members suggested additions to the report such as including gender as a demographic study, tracking officer ticket rates by location and marking red-flag areas where a larger than normal amount of violations have been reported in the past. 

"The more data we can release, the better," Hunter said.

The community and advisory board were trying to use the meeting to decide where data should be focused, he said.

Miller said she wanted to create a more efficient form of tracking officer development and monitoring trends and patterns to predict how officers will perform and develop in the future. 

The board then requested a report on the racial makeup of each officer’s arrest record.

The committee wants to invite the community to offer their input at their future Community Outreach Listening Sessions. To keep up to date with future events, contact one of the committee members. 

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