By Greg Barnes
The Fayetteville Observer
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is scheduled to spend much of Tuesday in Fayetteville to recognize the work the Fayetteville Police Department has done to improve community relations and bolster its policies and oversight.
“It’s just a tremendous honor for us to host her,” said John Bruce, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Bruce will accompany Lynch on her visit to the city.
This is the second phase of Lynch’s national Community Policing Tour, which is part of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing initiative. Lynch started this phase in February in Miami Dade County, Florida. She also has visited Portland, Oregon, and Indianapolis and plans to visit Phoenix and Los Angeles in the coming months.
“I look forward to meeting with law enforcement officers, local leaders and residents in the weeks and months ahead to discuss how we can ensure that every American benefits from neighborhoods that are supportive, safe and strong,” Lynch said in a news release.
Lynch is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. at Terry Sanford High School to meet with the Fayetteville Youth Advisory Council; followed by a tour of the Police Information Center at 10:30 a.m.; a collaborative reform roundtable at Fayetteville State University at 2:30 p.m.; and a news conference at FSU at 4 p.m.
Bruce praised improvements made in the Fayetteville Police Department since Harold Medlock became its police chief in 2013.
The department has been a leader in introducing new technologies, including surveillance and body cameras and a real-time information center. It continues to take a hard look at policies involving deadly use of force and other strategies to improve community trust, especially in high-crime neighborhoods. Last year, it became among the first police departments in North Carolina to equip officers with Naloxone, a drug used to reverse prescription painkiller and heroin overdoses.
“Without question,” Bruce said, “the Police Department has really made a lot of progress under Chief Medlock’s leadership.”
Medlock said some of those changes include how police interact with the public, the modification of use-of-force procedures and better transparency, including a comprehensive data portal for public use.
“I believe we have made some pretty remarkable changes in a relatively short amount of time that has created transparency, a sense of collaboration, a sense of trust,” he said.
Medlock became Fayetteville’s police chief in 2013, largely on the merits of his community policing work while an assistant chief and an officer in Charlotte.
In the years preceding his arrival, Fayetteville was embroiled in a controversy over police consent searches of vehicles. Traffic statistics showed black drivers were being stopped by police three times more often than whites.
In 2012, the City Council prohibited police from searching vehicles unless they had written consent from the driver. A year later, Medlock stepped in with a mandate to build community trust.
Medlock responded by ordering his officers to stop motorists for only the most serious driving infractions, those that can cause injury or death. Vehicle stops have fallen dramatically since then, and the rate of blacks being stopped is nearing the rate for white drivers.
While the issue has brought Fayetteville police national attention, Bruce said it was an unusual request by Medlock that really put the city on Lynch’s radar.
While Ferguson, Missouri, and other cities facing racial turmoil were ordered to undergo a Department of Justice review, Medlock requested one on his own.
The complete review was made public in December. Although the department is far from perfect - the review listed 49 problem areas and made 79 recommendations for improvement - Bruce said it underscored the type of collaborative effort Lynch wants to see between the Justice Department and local police.
Bruce said Lynch is coming to Fayetteville “because of their great work on the collaborative reform process,” and because “she thinks that Fayetteville should be praised for policy and oversight.”
Medlock has spoken twice before the President’s 21st Century Task Force on Community Policing, in Cincinnati and at the White House. Mayor Nat Robertson and two Fayetteville residents accompanied him on the White House trip.
Next up, being part of Lynch’s community policing tour.
“It is a great thing for the city and for the Police Department to be recognized for trying to do the right things, to try to implement some strategies that will keep our city safe and our officers safe and our citizens safe,” Medlock said.
Copyright 2016 The Fayetteville Observer