Sanford police criticized for traffic stop, tasing incident

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Neighborhood Response Unit rankles some

Williams isn’t the only one complaining that Sanford police haven’t changed since what many black residents see as the “bad old days” of officers who violently rousted African-Americans, and treated black residents with contempt.

On July 14, a group of black men playing dice on 15th Street in a predominantly black area of the city were approached by the new Neighborhood Response Unit, which was established by the department before Smith’s arrival, to respond to black community concerns that police were ignoring crime in their neighborhoods.

Police say the men appeared to be gambling, but one of them, Samuel Fuller, attempted to walk away, and refused to take his hands out of his pockets. He was Tased by an officer, and fell to the ground. Fuller was admitted to Orange County Regional Medical Center in Orlando in critical condition. He has since been released from the hospital.

A bystander took pictures of Fuller’s injuries with a cellphone.

But police chief Smith said the Fuller incident wasn’t about community relations or the police, or even about gambling. It was about resisting arrest. He said his department has launched an internal affairs investigation due to the severity of Fuller’s injuries.

Smith also expressed frustration with the notion that his department hasn’t changed fast enough. He also noted that Fuller has a lengthy arrest record.

“The neighborhood response unit was put together at the request of the people in the neighborhood to get rid of the guys who were selling drugs on the corner, who were doing a number of drive-bys in the Goldsboro area, and was also initiated by the commissioner in this area because she too was tired of the things that were taking place.” The commissioner, Velma Williams, is African-American.

“When people say they want enforcement, you can’t tell us that we don’t you to do that now, because now we’re starting to make the arrests,” Smith said. “Because we’re trying to make it a better community at your request.”

“At some point you have to come in and clean up before you can improve,” Smith said. “Sometimes you have to have that strong approach before you can have that soft approach. You can bring in the social programs and have them fail because people don’t feel safe to go to those social programs. This unit was put together before I got here to try and neutralize as much of the gun and drug issues in that area [as possible]. So we have a unit that comes in and does a cleanup job but we’ve also been doing those ‘walk and talks’ to try and communicate with people in the area. We have to take some kind of appropriate action. Do I think the officers could have taken a different approach [in the Fuller case]? Yes, but at the same time they are responsible for improving the safety in this community.”

Smith says that it’s unfair to point to a negative pattern or culture in the Sanford police department when it comes to the black community, but he admits there’s room for improvement.

“There have been issues between the police and the community, but if anyone even remotely thinks that in four months on this job, you’re going to change the perception of the police going all the way back? It takes time, it takes us all working together.” Smith started the job April 1st, after a nationwide search to find a permanent replacement for Bill Lee, who stepped down in the wake of the Zimmerman case.

“People told me to come in and take a vacuum and suck all these bad officers out, but the problem is there are unions, there is a police bill of rights, it’s not impossible but it takes time to weed things out and try and resolve issues in any organization,” Smith said, though he would not characterize any of the specific officers in the Williams or Fuller incidents, or prejudge the outcome of the internal investigations. “The community has to look at the fact that things are not going to change overnight. It’s going to take time for all of us to get beyond where we were. Believe me, if I find out any of those officers did something wrong I will discipline those officers, but there’s no disciplining the community when the community does the same thing.”

Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @TheReidReport.