RPD Joins News Outlets in Effort to Obtain Tyrone Mason Recordings

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Good morning, readers.

Last month, the INDY and a coalition of other local news outlets filed a petition for the release of law enforcement recordings related to the October crash along Capital Boulevard that killed Tyrone Mason, a 31-year-old father of four.

This week, we learned that the Raleigh Police Department, whose officers responded to the crash, is joining us in our efforts to, one, get recordings from the State Highway Patrol (including body camera footage from a state trooper who had attempted to stop Mason before the crash) and two, get those recordings released publicly. 

It’s pretty unusual for a law enforcement agency to join a media petition for recordings from another law enforcement agency, our lawyer told us. That the Highway Patrol has not shared its recordings with RPD, he added, “is kind of stunning.”

It may have something to do with what an SBI special agent discovered when he reviewed body camera footage from the state trooper, as described in search warrants. After Mason’s car wrecked, the trooper called his supervisor, who asked the trooper if he had called in a vehicle chase over the radio. The trooper said he hadn’t.

Then the crash, the supervisor replied, “is RPD’s problem.”

Read the story below. And if you value our work to bring these recordings into the light—and hold government officials accountable—support the INDY by joining our Press Club. Your contributions keep our independent journalism going.

 —Jane

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Durham

A new affordable housing development on Main Street will start taking applications. “The only way we were able to do this,” commissioner Nida Allam told INDY’s Justin Laidlaw, “is because the county put in the funding and used our own land.”

Wake

ICYMI: In a divided vote, the Wake County school board passed a budget that requests a $40 million increase in local funding and makes cuts to teachers’ salary supplements and school support staff, INDY’s Chloe Courtney Bohl reports.

Orange

Chapel Hill mayor Jess Anderson and Carrboro mayor Barbara Foushee announced they’ll be seeking re-election, WCHL reports.

North Carolina

The state house passed a bill that would ban sleeping on public property, except for specified areas designated by local governments. Advocates say it criminalizes homelessness, NC Newsline reports.

Student and teacher data stored in PowerSchool software has been breached again, WUNC reports.

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