Credibility

We are confused by Police Chief Jose Lopez's comments in a News and Observer story yesterday. (We've also seen the story at Cleveland.com. If you see it in your local paper, please let us know.)

"To hide behind the Internet and do something like this takes away from your credibility," he said.

The Police Department has been working on plans for stronger citywide enforcement, he said.

Working with the police is the best way to reduce speeding, not taking matters into one's own hands, Lopez added.

"It's not the poster; it's what the poster represents," Lopez said of the signs. "It represents the need to look out for someone assaulting you, in a sense, with a paintball. You're going to look around to see who's out there instead of looking at the road before you. It's pretty much indicating an act of imminent violence. Two wrongs don't make a right."

For starters, why is the chief concerned with our credibility? We have said repeatedly, and we repeat, this is not about us. This is about the selfish and reckless behavior we see daily on the streets where we live, work, and play. This is about reducing the problem of neighborhood speeding.

Whose credibility is really at stake? Either Durham has a neighborhood speeding problem, or it doesn't. We say it does. Durham PD issued a statement on Monday pointing to the increased number of speeding citations written in a three block area over a period of weeks in July. We think that means Durham PD recognizes the problem. Chief Lopez says "The Police Department has been working on plans for stronger citywide enforcement." We think that means Chief Lopez recognizes that neighborhood speeding is a citywide problem. We are grateful for the increased efforts that Durham PD is undertaking to make our streets safer. We are hopeful that this means Durham PD and other city departments will be working together to develop a comprehensive program to reduce neighborhood speeding.

Chief Lopez has previously stated that discharging a paintball gun at a moving vehicle would be a criminal violation. We have no intention of becoming criminals.

Chief Lopez says "You're going to look around to see who's out there instead of looking at the road before you." Does he believe that not being aware of your surroundings, that not seeing who's out there, will lead to fewer accidents? A six year old girl was killed in Raleigh yesterday exiting a school bus by a driver who didn't see her. If our signs have made drivers more aware of their surroundings, and of the possibility that there are people out there on our neighborhood streets, we think that makes our streets more, not less, safe.

Chief Lopez says that working with the police is the best way to reduce speeding. We have lost track of the number of times we have contacted the City of Durham and the Police Department over the years in an effort to reduce speeding. We have no idea how much money the City of Durham has spent in the past decade on traffic calming measures both ordinary (speed humps and traffic circles) and extraordinary (neckdowns and chicanes, for example). We have no idea how long the waiting list is for speed humps at the moment. But each of these requests represents an effort by the citizens of Durham to work with the city and the Police Department to reduce neighborhood speeding. What is surprising is that the Chief had a functioning, successful program that encouraged citizens to work with the Police to reduce speeding. It was dropped for "budgetary" reasons. We've asked the Police Department to provide figures indicating how much money was saved by dropping the PACE Car program, but have not heard back.

Our credibility is not the issue. The internet is not the issue. Neighborhood speeding is the issue. We look forward to learning the details of the Chief's plan for "stronger citywide enforcement." Beyond that, we look forward to hearing from the rest of our city's leadership how they plan to make reducing neighborhood speeding a priority for all of the city's government, not just the Police Department.