A new study based on the open-source, open-standards, StreetCred Police Killings in Context (PKIC) data project reveals that the number of unarmed civilians killed in confrontations with police is substantially lower than commonly stated in the media. At the same time, 11 officers have been arrested and indicted in five cases that appeared to prosecutors to be unjustified. The non-partisan PKIC project seeks to provide objective data and contextual facts on deadly force incidents to researchers, communities, activists, journalists and law enforcement advocacy groups.

“Police-community interactions are of critical concern to law enforcement and all Americans,” said Peter Moskos, author of, “Cop in the Hood,” who is a former Baltimore City Police Officer and an associate professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The facts are important. Objective projects like StreetCred PKIC are exactly the kind of data-driven approaches needed to foster better communication and informed debate.”

The non-commercial PKIC project, whose peer-reviewers come from across law enforcement, use-of-force experts, and industry, found 125 incidents in the first eight months of 2015 in which an unarmed civilian died after an encounter with police officers.

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ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. — Orange County recently selected Moseley Architects of Charlotte, N.C., to design the new Orange County Detention Facility. The new jail aims to improve both energy efficiency and mental health care for inmates.

While design is still in its earliest phases, the new jail will likely include a number of sustainable features and cost approximately $20 million. It will replace the current Orange County Jail, which was originally constructed in 1925.

The new environmentally friendly facility will be located adjacent to the State Correctional Facility in Hillsborough and will house approximately 144 inmates, a nearly 90-inmate increase in capacity. However, rather than simply building big, the county is also focusing on building smart. Designing for improved daylighting will be one significant improvement, especially for inmates with mental health diagnoses and behavioral disorders.

In addition to potentially integrating green and sustainable systems such as geothermal heating and cooling, energy- and water-efficient fixtures and LED lighting, the jail’s flexible design will also include space for alternative and community integration programs aimed at improving outcomes and reducing recidivism rates, while also taking into account the possibility for future expansion.

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RALEIGH, NC…North Carolina search and rescue teams are deployed in several areas across the Carolinas to search for people whose lives are at risk due to dangerous flooding as rainfall totals, normally associated with major hurricanes, plague portions of eastern North Carolina and nearly all South Carolina.

“These situations are exactly what our crews train for and why continual training for these search and rescue teams is so vital,” said Public Safety Secretary Frank L. Perry. “I am grateful that we have had these very experienced teams on standby and ready to respond to help the many individuals in need.”

As a Raleigh-based search and rescue crew made their way to Hyde County Sunday to assist local officials with searches, they encountered near Swan Quarter a car that had been swept off the road and was submerged in eight to ten feet of water. The quick-thinking team sprang into action and pulled the vehicle’s two passengers from the sinking car.

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Criminals beware: The future of law enforcement is looking strong.

Just ask Henderson County sheriff’s deputy James Hurn, who returned Sunday from a statewide “Survival Weekend” competition with five members of the Sheriff’s Office’s Cadet Corps, an all-volunteer program that provides police training for middle and high school students interested in pursuing careers in law enforcement.

Outnumbered but not out-spirited, Aaron Speyer, Ian Commeaux, Megan Young, Manny Acosta and Sean Fish gave Hurn a reason to be proud. Together the contingent placed second among the 12 Cadet and Police Explorers posts that gathered on a cold and rainy weekend at Camp Grimes in McDowell County, about 60 miles northeast of Hendersonville.

“I was beyond impressed,” Hurn said of his post’s showing. “They wanted to represent their law enforcement office well — and they did.”

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Just what does a North Carolina sheriff do these days?

Retired District Court Judge Stanley Peele, writing about Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, says that the concept of law enforcement officers has changed from “authority, power and prestige” to one of problem-solving.

Peele quotes Sheriff Blackwood, “When people are in distress, when they have gone sideways, they look to the police to solve their problems. Police are people and people are police.”

Blackwood recently explained to me his efforts to encourage his deputies and other staff to emphasize their service responsibility and to avoid being heavy-handed when it was not absolutely necessary. Being peacemakers is as much a part of the job as being peacekeepers, he said.

Sheriffs have extraordinary authority and responsibility to enforce the law and to take practical measures to solve the various sets of human problems that challenge the goal of having a peaceful community.

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Raleigh, N.C. — Sometimes when he drives home from work, his 12-hour shift in the rearview mirror, Jeff Mitchell sits in silence – no radio, no phone calls, nothing. When you’ve listened to a dying man take his last breath or a parent screaming as a child convulses on the floor, you don’t want to hear any more sounds.r6

In his years as a 911 call taker in Alaska and now at the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center, Mitchell has heard people at their worst and most vulnerable. He has been cursed at, cried to and hung up on. But he has also helped deliver babies, saved people with CPR and comforted a lonely, old lady.r11

“You never know when that phone rings what’s going to be on the other side,” Mitchell said. “This is one of the jobs where you have to be 100 percent all the time. You can’t have a bad day, because if you do, people die.”

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DURHAM, N.C. — A North Carolina sheriff’s deputy says he heard wailing in the darkness and plunged into an apartment complex’s pond at night to rescue two young girls who, police say, had been thrown there to drown by their father.

Durham County Sheriff’s Deputy David Earp was off duty and says he rushed out with little more than his department T-shirt, badge and flashlight after the apartment manager called him at home around 9 p.m. Sunday to report some kind of trouble.

“I heard something about children, that they might possibly be in trouble,” Earp said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “And after I was informed that there were kids involved, instinct took over just to go out there and rescue them.”

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When’s the last time you read or saw something that put a police officer in a bad light?

Last week? Yesterday? Ten minutes ago?

Two of the most recent stories that popped up on my radar: On Monday, CNN posted prominently on its home page the story of a white Ohio officer telling an African-American motorist that he pulled him over, in part, for making “direct eye contact”; on Thursday, the Providence Journal reported on a video showing a white officer telling a black motorist that he pulled him over for incorrectly installed air fresheners.

In both cases, the men being pulled over made claims of racial profiling. And in both cases, the clips made the rounds on the Internet and fueled the growing perception – especially common among minorities – that our police can’t always be trusted.

Next question: When’s the last time you read or saw something that put a police officer in a good light?

Those stories don’t often go as viral, but they’re out there. Do a Google News search for “cop saves,” for instance, and you’ll find numerous inspiring results. Or better yet, check out the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Facebook page, which has catalogued plenty of uplifting local tales.

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EDNEYVILLE – State and local crime fighters huddled near the football field at the former Edneyville High School Tuesday morning to carry out a game-changing play to ease a backlog of criminal cases awaiting evidence analysis throughout the state.

Shovels in hand, State Crime Lab Director John Byrd and N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper broke the ground beneath them and “dug up a little dirt” to ceremoniously prepare the land for a larger, state-of-the-art Western Regional Crime Laboratory. The new 36,000-square-foot lab will test the evidence of 30 counties west of Interstate 77, giving officers in Western North Carolina a drive much shorter than Raleigh to submit their samples.

“It’s convenient for everyone in Western North Carolina, but it’s real convenient for Henderson County,” said county Sheriff Charles McDonald at the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.

The new lab, less than 10 miles away from the sheriff’s office, will be roughly twice as large as the current crime lab in Asheville and is expected to open in 2017. The groundbreaking was held on the grounds of the Larry T. Justus Western Justice Academy at 3971 Chimney Rock Road.

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ROCKINGHAM — The black and silver motif of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office fleet was enough to arrest the attention of judges in a vehicle design contest.

Law and Order Magazine recently named RCSO as the third-place winner of its 2015 Police Vehicle Design Contest for a sheriff’s office with more than 25 deputies. The department’s K-9 SUV also received an honorable mention for best SWAT, support, command post or CSI vehicle.

On the patrol car, judges commented: “Striking color combination, good use of the vehicle’s body contour. The SHERIFF lettering is pronounced.” The colors, use of space on the lettering and the star logo on the SUV received kudos from the judges.

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