Lowcountry law enforcement agencies release racial bias audit updates

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Two of the Lowcountry’s largest law enforcement agencies are taking steps to eliminate racial bias in their policing.

The Charleston Police Department (CPD) has an online resource to help combat prejudice in police and the North Charleston Police Department (NCPD) have released the first implementation update in their racial bias audit.

“I’m really praying that from this point forward that we will begin to effectively address, work on, and fix the problems that we have,” says Pastor Thomas Dixon.

It’s a bridge that Pastor Dixon says must be gapped.

“I know that when that happens then our community is going to be working properly and people will be safe in the community,” says Pastor Dixon.

Since March of 2021 a third party group has taken a comprehensive assessment of NCPD’s policies and practices after conducting multiple community listening sessions and interviews.

The report specifically looks at law enforcement operations, community orientated policing practices, complaints, recruitment of officers, training and accountability.

Since its release, 4% of recommendations have been completed, 96% are in progress and 0% have not started.

CPD was given 72 recommendations from the same assessment to meet since November in traffic, personnel practices, complaints, community policing and the use of force.

31 recommendations have met full compliance, 32 are under annual review and 8 are still in progress. Captain Anthony Cretella with CPD says this updated dashboard is crucial to become more transparent with the Charleston community.

“The whole goal of that dashboard was to have us provide updates with context rather than a checkmark,” says Cpt. Cretella.

CPD officials say with only 8 recommendations left in progress, they say it’s important to hear from the community so they will continue to bridge any gaps.

“Our partnerships with the community are paramount to our success and a lot of the times we need the community more than they need us with solving crimes and moving forward with this audit,” says Cpt. Cretella.

CPD officers say they want to make sure want to keep getting feedback from the community so they can keep updating their policies annually.