Bullock presses for police civilian review board


Editor’s Note: Documents have been redacted for proper names and pronouns that could identify the individuals involved.

Local NAACP chapter president Horace Bullock asked the Henderson City Council on Monday evening to create a civilian review board for its police department.

After distributing documents related to a complaint about police conduct, Bullock was cautioned by City Attorney John Zollicoffer that the council may not discuss individual personnel matters as a matter of law.

According to Zollicoffer, such a discussion would be a violation of North Carolina civil and criminal statutes.

According to Bullock’s paperwork, a complaint was lodged against a Henderson Police Department officer for a a traffic stop she conducted on July 13, 2010. According to the complainant, the officer was not polite at all when she stopped [him].”

The complainant maintains that the stop for a a cracked windshield was retaliatory for an incident several weeks before when he blew his car horn at the officer because he or she was blocking the road while having a conversation with “some guy who was fixing a house”. The complainant maintains that the officer did not move, and that when he or she managed to move his vehicle around the officer in the stationary vehicle, the officer blew the car horn back.

Bullock told the council that the subsequent investigation “reveals absolutely nothing”.

“What is the point of having a system if you don’t get any results?” Bullock asked.

Bullock characterized the department as a “vigilante police department”. He went on to say that the city council should be policing the police department, and that council members are not doing their jobs.

“These [complaints] should not be taken lightly,” Bullock said.

Bullock asked who finds out if the consequences for the officer actually occur. He asked how long such an incident would remain in the officer’s file.

Calling the situation “an example of the fox guarding the henhouse,” he ended his remarks by asked that the council appoint a civilian board to which police have to report.

A civilian police review board has been discussed in the past, but no action has been taken in that regard.