Virtual Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP Summit Pushes for Police Reform

“What you see before you is a definition of the term ‘safety,’” Northside resident Paris Miller said on a Zoom call Saturday afternoon, presenting a pale yellow PowerPoint slide to 100 or so callers listening in. 

Sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and the Inter-Faith Council Activate! Initiative, this virtual town hall meeting—titled “Transforming and Reimagining Safety in Our Communities”—sought to localize the national discourse on police brutality. But before delving into the NAACP’s six-point agenda for law enforcement transformation, the moderators defined their goal.  

“When we think about safety,” continued Miller, who is co-chair of the Chapel Hill Community Policing Advisory Committee, “I think it’s important that we think of it in terms of both our individual lived experience as well as the collective experience of communities that we belong to – because safety as defined by a white woman will be different than what it means for a Black individual.”  

Miller, alongside activist Quinton Harper and Chapel Hill Council Member Tai Huynh, explained the group’s agenda, which stems from a call to action from the national organization. Four local NAACP branches have collaborated on the agenda, tailoring it for Orange and Chatham Counties, which together make up North Carolina’s 18th Prosecutorial District.

Saturday’s virtual town hall aimed to get the community’s feedback on the agenda, which advocates for the review of existing law enforcement policies relating to the use of force, records transparency, and officer hiring and retention. It also reaches beyond the scope of policing and advocates for investment in communities, removing police from schools, and providing affordable housing. 

“We don’t pretend to say that the NAACP has all the answers,” Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP president Anna Richards said, “but we think we’ve done a pretty good job of looking across the landscape and hopefully capturing what our community feels are priority areas.”  

In developing the agenda, Richards said, the branches took into account the NAACP’s initial call to action, Barack Obama’s four commitments for mayors, 8 Can’t Wait and 8 to Abolition. 

“It’s not reform,” Richards clarified. “I think we’ve been nibbling around the edges on police reform for many years. I think that we really have to step back and take a different view of the relationship between armed police and the community.”

District Attorney James Woodall, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, and the police chiefs from each Orange County jurisdiction attended the NAACP’s presentation to law enforcement on Wednesday. Richard said that officials were attentive and committed to working with the NAACP to perform the reviews and provide the information requested on the agenda. 

Richards predicts that “the river will hit the road” once the community fully understands exactly what law enforcement policies are in place and what community investment could look like. She said community members must hold local administrators accountable to their commitments and engage in politics on the local and state levels. 

Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue, Mebane Police Chief Terrance Caldwell and UNC Police Chief David Perry all told the INDY that their departments are reviewing the NAACP’s requests and that some of the agenda’s proposals are already in place. Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood pointed to countywide policies such as racial equity and inclusion training, Orange County Pre-Arrest Diversion (OC-PAD), and reduction in the enforcement of low-level marijuana violations and regulatory motor vehicle violations as evidence of the department’s reform efforts.  

“I’m certain that I speak for all of the law enforcement leaders who took part in this Zoom Meeting when I say that we are grateful for the opportunity to take part in what is only the beginning of this ongoing conversation,” Blackwood said. 

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