Document provides clarification on reporting officer misconduct

Buncombe County law enforcement agencies and district attorney’s office adopt uniform policy

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
August 4, 2020

Black Mountain Police Chief Shawn Freeman signs a memorandum of agreement between Buncombe County law enforcement agencies on July 30 as district attorney Todd Williams looks on. The document sets a uniform policy for reporting potential officer misconduct to the district attorney’s office. Fred McCormick

Local law enforcement agencies now have a uniform policy regarding their obligations related to reporting potential officer misconduct to the district attorney’s office. 

A memorandum of agreement between Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams and the seven agencies within the county, signed July 30, provides detailed guidance on the matter.

The agreement was introduced at the courthouse by Williams and law enforcement leaders representing agencies operating in the county, including Black Mountain Police Chief Shawn Freeman, Montreat Chief David Arrant and Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller.

The eight-page document is “unique” in Western North Carolina, and perhaps the state, according to Williams. 

“I’m standing with the leaders of all of our municipal agencies in Buncombe County to execute a uniform policy and procedure for reporting officer misconduct,” Williams said. “This document has been in the works for a long while.”

The agreement lists criteria for the reporting of criminal and non-criminal behavior by officers that could prove beneficial to a defendant in a case. Departments are obligated, under direction from the document, to disclose all cases of lethal force used by officers; any instance of death of a person that is in custody of an officer or employee; all instances in which “substantial information” is available that an employee violated their respective department’s excessive force policy and all incidents with information that an officer committed any felony or non-traffic misdemeanor offense, or was charged with such an offense. 

Sustained administrative findings of misconduct defined by the Brady and Giglio Supreme Court decisions are also requirements for disclosure. Brady-Giglio standards place the responsibility on prosecutors to perform due diligence and share potentially exculpatory or impeachable conduct of witnesses with the defense prior to trial. 

“Substantial information” is defined by the agreement as “credible information that might reasonably be deemed to have undermined confidence in a later conviction in which the law enforcement employee is a witness.”  

“It’s been a goal of mine to have a uniform, consolidated, simple-to-understand policy that catches all officer misconduct, whether it be potentially criminal or non-criminal department policy violations,” Williams said. “This gives us one policy that is simple and easy to understand, throughout the county.”

The existing policies for the Black Mountain Police Department were already in compliance with the agreement, according to Freeman, but the document is timely for all agencies. 

“Transparency is very important, and we’ve done a lot of things to build on that over the past few years,” Freeman said. “In my opinion, it’s only through transparency that we can build community trust, and we can strengthen our community by building trust between our department and citizens.”

Freeman has been working with other senior law enforcement officials and the district attorney to complete the agreement since late 2018. The parties involved were initially planning to sign the document in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its completion. 

“When we have an officer whose actions require an internal investigation, and we find that their conduct could be impeachable, this agreement triggers an automatic investigation by the district attorney’s office,” Freeman said.

The memorandum shows that county law enforcement agencies are committed to a justice system that is as fair and competent as possible, according to Williams. 

“This comes out of law that’s been established, some of it decades ago,” he said. “But, this is a new way of ensuring that we have a broad understanding and can move forward together.”