Out of the shadows: Mount Olive police work to address concerns, use body cams, offer programs
By John Joyce
Published in News on December 12, 2016 10:06 AM
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News-Argus/BRANDON DAVIS
Lovern Massey walks on Center Street to the Mount Olive license plate agency to purchase tags for a scooter he recently bought. He has lived in Mount Olive for five months, and he has interacted with the police department.
MOUNT OLIVE-- Lovern Massey walks just about everywhere he goes.
His black sneakers have no tread and a chipped heal.
Massey said he has lived in the town of Mount Olive for several months and he has seen, and encountered first-hand, the town's efforts in community policing.
Officers one day stopped Massey and asked to see his shoes thinking they might match the description given during a recent break-in.
"They've stopped me a few times," he said. "I do a lot of walking, and they ask a couple of questions about some break-ins or something like that. They didn't hassle me or nothing. They just asked me a couple of questions."
Though Massey hasn't lived in Mount Olive his entire life, he was there to see the police interact with the community during the hurricane.
"They (were) around, helping people out," he said.
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Police Chief Tommy Brown has seen a lot in his many years with the department. He joining MOPD in 1998 and only became chief a year ago.
Brown attributes the community's positive perspective -- for those who view it that way -- to the police officers in his department and their increased interaction with the people.
The community is home to Brown and his family, and both have been well received since his promotion. Such was evident in the aftermath of Matthew.
The day before the hurricane flooded parts of the town, for example, Brown received a call. On the other end of the line, Pastor Jeff Dail of First Pentecostal Holiness Church, told Brown about a mobile kitchen the church had purchased months prior for outreach ministry and disaster relief.
So when Carver Elementary School reopened its doors as a shelter in the wake of Matthew, church members hauled the kitchen to the school.
Dail, who has pastored the 550-member church for one year, said he and his members knew of two open routes they could take to deliver food to people barricaded by the flood.
Brown insisted his department would take care of the deliveries.
"When you look toward our police department now, you see a police department that's there to make sure they're there to help you (and) assist you to try to meet the needs of the community," Dail said.
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Some town residents, not unlike Massey, say they have had different interactions with the police.
David Vincent lives in Mount Olive and works in Kinston.
Although he feels the police are involved in the community, Vincent said he believes some officers "lack professionalism."
He claims he has witnessed young officers in patrol cars "racing each other" on highways. And said he has seen officers wearing shirts that say, "I'm your huckleberry," a pop culture reference to the 1993 motion picture, "Tombstone" depicting legend-of-the-West lawman Wyatt Earp and his shotgun-toting pal, Doc Holliday.
"Professionalism isn't there," Vincent said. "I don't have any interaction with them aside from running across them in the local community grocery stores and things of that nature."
Vincent said he believes the only thing that can change the community's perception of the police department - - for those who view the department in a negative light -- is for the officers to change their own image of unprofessionalism.
"You've got young guys, 21 to 26-year-old police officers, running around," he said. "Age is pretty much irrelevant. The state deems them capable of being a police officer at the age of 21, so they are. It's just the child in them, I guess."
Brown understands citizens have concerns. Not long after taking over as chief, he implemented his Coffee with Chief program which gives the community the chance to air complaints and concerns. So far, he said, he hasn't seen the participation he expected.
A woman did called him once to report that three Mount Olive police cars drove over 75 mph down Center Street, he said. So he looked into the report and discovered a video existed capturing the incident.
Brown said he contacted the woman and was able to explain what she had seen -- a suspect driving a stolen vehicle being chased by a sheriff's deputy with a Mount Olive police car also in pursuit.
Brown said each patrol car holds a GPS which allows him to monitor police responses or unnecessary speeding.
All three cars were going 45 mph, he said.
Brown encourages his officers each day to do the right thing, he said, including maintaining professionalism.
"Be professional, treat people the way you want to be treated, so when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, you can say, 'Hey, I was upfront and honest with who I dealt with, and I treated people the way I wanted to be treated.'"
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The Mount Olive Police Department is comprised of two female officers and 17 male officers, and their ages range from 23 to the mid-30s.
On staff are currently 19 full-time sworn officers -- including himself -- as well as a major, three investigators, four patrol shift sergeants, two patrol officers and two swing officers.
Brown said on-duty officers are required to wear "class-B" uniforms, not T-shirts with catch phrases on them. Part of creating a positive community-police atmosphere is having the right people in uniform, and taking care of the officers who serve, he added.
Manpower is significant. Brown said that in the past, officers would resign after two years of service and transfer to other agencies due to low pay rates and a lack of benefits.
But these days more officers are sticking with the department longer. That's partly because officers receive $800 more a year than the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and $3,000 a year more than the Duplin County Sheriff's Office, he said.
"One of the issues in the department is, if you can keep your officers happy, they'll stay," Brown said. "We've not really seen the turnover that we'd seen in the past."
He said officers can now also rely on better equipment. There are 12 street cameras throughout Mount Olive, and he said the department should install two more in December now that Progress Energy has allowed the police department to use the company's light poles.
In 2013, officers received body cams, but Brown said officers will possess upgraded body cams that transfer video automatically to a database in the upcoming months. He said the in-car cameras hold memory cards that display the video on a computer.
"Because We Care" is a program for the elderly, shut-ins and the handicapped to use in case of an emergency.
Brown said a person can register for the program, and the person would be able to call the police department, listen to an automated message and press one button for a live officer. But Brown said the program's new internet-based phone system just arrived and he said officers need to learn how to use the system.
"As soon as we get this automated system up and running, I want to kick it all off at one time," he said.
Violent bank robberies have not occurred since 2005, and the town has not seen a homicide since 2010, Brown said. He said a murder occurred once a year between 2003 and 2006.
Officers, or "drug guys" as Brown calls them, have changed the perspective of possible drug dealers in the town. Brown said dealers have communicated they will not deal drugs in Mount Olive.
"I think that speaks volumes of the work that they do, and word gets out, 'hey, you can do whatever you want to do, but you bring it to Mount Olive, you take a chance of getting caught,'" he said.