Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
10 <br /> 1 Commissioner Jacobs said watching TV and movies have polluted his view of all of this. <br /> 2 He said the question for him is how well do people know their rights, and how obligated is law <br /> 3 enforcement to inform them. <br /> 4 Commissioner Jacobs said this is a more difficult issue than the body cameras for him. <br /> 5 He told Commissioner Dorosin that he appreciated the topic being brought up and suggested <br /> 6 re-visiting this. He said he thought body cameras would help, and would like to check back with <br /> 7 the Sheriff to see how his proposed practice is working. He would also like to hear updates <br /> 8 from those working in the civil rights movement. <br /> 9 Commissioner Jacobs said he wanted to respect the Sheriff's prerogatives and his staff. <br /> 10 Sheriff Blackwood said he will provide the BOCC with a breakdown of the searches that <br /> 11 have consent and those that do not. <br /> 12 Chair McKee agreed with Commissioner Jacobs. <br /> 13 Commissioner Dorosin said the Board should review the data from Bumgarner and have <br /> 14 this discussion. <br /> 15 Commissioner Jacobs said to ask Sheriff to analyze the stops. <br /> 16 Sheriff Blackwood said they met with Mr. Bumgarner to ask him to analyze their <br /> 17 searches since Sheriff Blackwood has been in office, as well as searches broken down by <br /> 18 officer. He said the collection of data is confusing and complicated. <br /> 19 Jennifer Galassi presented the data from the period of two years prior to December <br /> 20 2014, and the 20 months since then. <br /> 21 Commissioner Rich asked if this data should be weighted due to the larger white <br /> 22 population, as compared to the black population. <br /> 23 Jennifer Galassi said that is difficult because the people being ticketed are not even <br /> 24 residents. <br /> 25 Sheriff Blackwood said they are trying to correlate better data sets to be collected, <br /> 26 including where people live, the race of the officer, etc. He said they have been challenged to <br /> 27 come up with four categories to check, which are currently not being checked. He said these <br /> 28 are interesting numbers, but this is not indicative of what is really going on, as all stops do not <br /> 29 require documentation. He would support changing this practice, and collecting data on every <br /> 30 interaction: who was stopped, why they were stopped, what was the outcome, was there a bias <br /> 31 involved in the stop, etc. <br /> 32 Commissioner Jacobs asked if data for Hispanics could be collected as well. <br /> 33 Chair McKee said this all boils down to having trust in the Orange County Sheriff's <br /> 34 office, and he does trust them. <br /> 35 Commissioner Jacobs suggested bringing this information back at the February 16th <br /> 36 work session. <br /> 37 Sheriff Blackwood said he does care about civil liberties, and his department has to use <br /> 38 the law that is given to it, and keep working together towards a better place. <br /> 39 <br /> 40 The meeting was adjourned at 10:47 p.m. <br /> 41 <br /> 42 Earl McKee, Chair <br /> 43 <br /> 44 Donna Baker <br /> 45 Clerk to the Board <br /> 46 <br /> 47 <br />