The Herald-Sun(Durham,NC) December15,1996 Sunday Final Edition
SECTION: DURHAM; Pg. Cl
Insiders offer ugly view of police; Allegations of misconduct won't go away
BYLINE: PATRICK FLANIGAN The Herald-Sun
A former police officer insists the Durham Police Department is rife with sexual misconduct. Rumors swirl that police officers are having sex on the job.
Sound familiar?
The allegations were made in May 1987 by a cop-turned-firefighter named Kenneth Dollar.
Two months after he wrote an article describing sexual escapades on the police force, Dollar was fired.
His story, published in an X-rated magazine called “Screw,“ included vignettes that unnamed police officers had sex in patrol cars and at police headquarters. The story was accompanied by studio pictures of nude women.
"The pictures were inflammatory because that's what sells 'Screw,'" publisher Al Goldstein said in a telephone Interview last week." But every word was true. It was a signed article.
The story was easily dismissed.
"It's not a high-priority item considering the source," former Police Chief Talmadge Lassiter said in 1987about the pace of any investigation into Dollar's allegations.
Fast forward to 1996.
A respected police commander files a lawsuit against the police chief--new chief, same department--alleging that the chief permitted an atmosphere of sexual harassment and black racism on the force.
Later, the commander criticizes the police's drug enforcement policies in a published article.
The commander, former Capt. Paul Martin, is put on administrative leave for insubordination, then demoted. He resigns in protest and vows to wrap his allegations in the mantle of truth.
Within weeks, another former commander--Maj. Cleo Warren --breaks a three-year silence and corroborates Martin's story. He even says Police Chief Jackie McNeil himself engaged in sexual misconduct on the job. Five days later, last Monday, McNeil gives up his administrative duties to lead a new task force on the city's rising homicide rate. He says he must take the "spotlight" off the department and focus on Durham's worst probiem: murder.
"It's nice to be vindicated 10 years later," said Goldstein, whose tabloid boasts that four out of seven judges agree it's Obscene by any standard.
Racial tensions
Rewind to Feb. 21,1992.
Police Chief Trevor Hampton resigns, saying he hoped to end the "negative media attention" the department had Received under his command. Much of that attention focused on allegations that civilian employees in the department were operating a call-girl ring.
The call-girl rumors were never substantiated. But the controversy continued when the State Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate charges of perjury,' obstruction of justice and intimidation of witnesses during the internal investigation of the allegations. People targeted in that investigation sued the city and the suit eventually was settled out of court.
The total cost to the city was more than$250,000.
City Manager Orville Powell speculated publicly then that the rumors might have been sparked by racial tension in the department. Hampton was the first black police chief and many of the allegations were aimed specifically at his closest associates, who also were black.
"It seems more than coincidence that the rumors only involve black people," Powell said in a 1992 interview. He said he believed a racial "split" existed among a small group of officers.
"That group might have some very strong feelings," Powell said.
Back to 1996.
The disputed driven by Martin's suit includes allegations of racism in both directions--black on white and white on black.
Martin, McNeil and Warren are black. But four other officers listed as plaintiffs in Martin's suit are white. All served under Martin in an elite drug-enforcement unit called the Crime Area Target Team.
In their suit, the officers say black commanders discriminated against white officers. One black maior used the term "cracker" in reference to a pizza deliveryman, the suit alleges.
"He ain't no cracker," the major allegedly said when it turned out the pizzaman was actually Middle Eastern.
Losing the battle
But a July 1995 memo from McNeil to Martin suggests there were concerns about racist activities by Martin's subordinates. McNeil told Martin he believed some of the officers on the CATT were "physically abusing citizens" and ''mistreating citizens differently because of race /gender."
Some of those officers, who are white, now are being sued for police brutality by black Durham residents.
"I think your supervisory personnel are personally involved and or witnessed these incidents," McNeil wrote. Shortly after that, McNeil disbanded the central CATT to emphasize the department's focus on community policing.
Martin contended the move was in response to his unit's allegations of sexual harassment. He predicted the CATT breakup would lead to a reduction in drug arrests, which in turn would create an increase in drug-related deaths.
This year, with a record 42 homicides, Durham has the state's highest per capita murder rate. The old record, 35, was set in 1994.
Allegations of sexual misconduct and racism in the Police Departments span almost a decade and three police chiefs. But Powell, who has hired all three chiefs, said there has been more smoke than fire in almost every case.
"It doesn't take much to make an allegation," Powell said. "But it takes a hell of a lot to prove they're false. How do you prove something didn't happen?"
Trying to make sense
Whether the allegations are coincidences or trends depends on whether they're true, said David Smith, chairman of the political action committee Friends of Durham.
"If you believe Paul Martin and the other officers, the things they're saying have been going on for a number of years and are just now coming to light," Smith said." The problem is, are they making it up or did it really happen? Somebody needs to find that out."
But Smith said the mere existence of the allegations, regardless of their truthfulness, points to problems in the Police Department that may run deeper than the personalities involved, "If there's a problem in the Police Department, it's bigger than Jackie McNeil," Smith said. "Perhaps it's true of all large organizations or bureaucracies when you promote somebody from within. A buddy system develops.”
City Council Member Ike Robinson, a sociology professor at N.C. Central University, expressed similar thoughts. "We seem to have a big split within our department," Robinson said in a previous interview." There are various scenarios as to what has caused this split. To be perfectly honest, I don't know which scenario has validity."
Large organizations have formalized structures that spell out the chains of authority, Robinson said. But many tend to develop an informal "shadow structure" that gives some people more access to top levels than their rank should allow. That makes some people feel more powerful while others feel slighted, which leads to disputes within the ranks.
"Large organizations can take on a life of their own that are separate and independent of the leadership," Robinson said.
Shaking my head....
Do they inbreed in Durham?
Former Durham police chief dies On his first day on the job, McNeil pledged to restore the department's tarnished reputation. By RYAN TEAGUE BECKWITH, Staff Writer Jackie W. McNeil, who worked his way through the ranks of the Durham police to become chief only to resign amid controversy, died Saturday. He was 55. McNeil, who suffered from diabetes, had been ill recently with various health problems. A Durham native, McNeil grew up in the city's rough east side, graduating from Hillside High before earning a bachelor's degree from N.C. Central University. After spending three years in the Army, he went to police and fire academy.
snip
On his first day on the job, McNeil demoted a high-ranking competitor for the chief's job to a patrol job, a move that he later undid at the request of the city manager.
Chief McNeil was born in Durham and grew up on Juniper Street in the Albright community and in McDougald Terrace.
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