CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is getting money to help it better identify officers with troubling behavior.
It’s part of a wider effort to track police misconduct in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
CMPD is getting $118,000 from the Charlotte’s new budget to improve its early intervention system.
The department first started using it in 2018. It tracks an officer’s history, including what types of calls they respond to and their attendance record.
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But now, the department will upgrade the system to identify officers at risk of using excessive force.
The city budget says CMPD will develop a new internal process to review the findings of its officers. That decision comes after a summer of protests back in 2020.
The department has since adopted other policies to reduce police brutality and deaths amid an outcry from community advocates and other organizations for the department to do more.
Channel 9 has asked CMPD when the department will implement the new policy.
One group is working to divert some of the 911 calls CMPD responds to, and they say that could help with police violence also. Now that the funding is approved, organizers said they can begin assembling their team.
Here’s how it works.
You would still dial 911, but dispatchers would divert some low-level calls to a CARES street team. It will be made up of groups of at least two people – a doctor and a paramedic.
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Each 911 call will be screened to make sure the responding team is safe.
The goal is to limit some police interactions. According to a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center, people struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, or homelessness are 16 times more likely to be killed by police nationwide.
Robert Dawkins from Action NC said last week that the program will help prevent that.
“The police show up, it ends in arrest, the arrest means you’re going to court, court costs for the judge to say, ‘this person needs help and I’m mandating that this person gets help,’” Dawkins said.
The program will first focus along North Tryon Street in uptown Charlotte, as well as the Beatties Ford corridor.
The street team is hoping to be up and running by the end of June.
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