Officials from the Lubbock Police Department fielded remarks from the public this week at its East Division Patrol Station during the latest of its monthly community engagement meetings.
The dialogue between residents and law enforcement officials is one of the more recent examples of LPD’s efforts to improve community involvement as its operations decentralize. At the meetings, anyone is welcome to talk through their frustrations with officers like Assistant Police Chief Nathan White and give them feedback about the treatment they have received.
White was joined in the meeting by Assistant Chief Neal Barron and Division Station Deputy Chief Jason Skrabanek, who both actively participated throughout the discussions. LPD hosted the meeting with citizens in response to a recent string of burglaries in the Chatman Hill neighborhood, which runs down Avenue A all the way from 19th Street to 34th Street.
Officials showed a PowerPoint presentation with statistics of crimes that occurred last month between June 16 and June 30. During this time period alone, the East Division Patrol Station responded to 4,030 combined requests for service and officer-initiated calls.
Of those, Skrabanek said more than half of the calls were officer-initiated, meaning an officer either pulled someone over or otherwise initiated the interaction themselves. On another slide, a table of crime data showed that traffic stops have risen by 64% in the area over the past year.
“The more that we're out there, the more that we're seeing, the more that we're doing something and being proactive — it's going to affect your property crimes,” Skrabanek said at the meeting.
LPD shared other data that they say shows the ripple effects of those traffic stops. Robberies were down 13%, vehicular burglaries were down 29% and thefts were down 18% over the last year.
Additionally, arrests were up only 8% over the same period. While much of the feedback from East Lubbock residents centered on perceptions of being over-policed, White said the difference between the number of traffic stops and arrests shows “proactive activity” that’s a part of the department’s community policing approach.
“That's a huge gap. We didn't take a whole lot more people to jail out of all the traffic stops, but we were a lot more visible,” White said. “Which I really do believe is why the property crime has dropped so dramatically in the area.”
Lubbockites at the meeting still had much to say about their interactions with LPD officers in East Lubbock. A few in attendance questioned whether officers had leeway to harass residents under the guise of proactive monitoring. Most people who live in the area are Black or Hispanic, according to population data.
One person in particular, 24-year-old Antonio Lopez of the Lubbock Democratic Socialists of America, was critical of some parts of the discussion. At one point, he asked officials if the increases in their proactivity and visibility would mean more “transparency and accountability."
In response, White said there are multiple options for citizens who wish to file a complaint against an officer for their conduct towards them.
Anyone can email InternalAffairs@mail.ci.lubbock.tx.us, call a desk sergeant at (806) 775-2816 or 775-2817, or file a complaint in-person at any of the city’s three patrol division stations or downtown headquarters.
Moreover, White explained that LPD also has some internal methods for scrutinizing officers’ conduct. For instance, sergeants are mandated to do random body-worn camera checks each month to see how officers are interacting with the public.
Skrabanek told attendees about the pride he takes in how LPD has “self-initiated our own investigations.”
“We didn't wait for a citizen to call me to tell me that this [officer] is doing something,” Skrabanek said. “I caught it, a sergeant caught it, a lieutenant caught it, someone caught it and [took action].’”
Skrabanek added that he thinks the perception that police sweep their own misconduct under the rug is unwarranted because, although it remains unseen by the public, this self-regulatory mechanism has successfully stamped out substandard police behavior.
In Lopez’s view, however, this course of action still isn’t good enough because it relies solely on police taking the initiative to manage themselves. He said there just isn’t enough good faith for the public to take police solely at their word.
“That was the crux of my question,” Lopez said. “Is there some sort of outside force mediating for the people? Because, sure, the people can file a complaint to the entity that made the mistake. But at the end of the day, how much self-criticism can you expect from a governmental body?”
Regardless, Lopez said he felt like some common ground was gained by the meeting. He credited White, Skrabanek and Barron for taking the time to address the public and talking through many of the issues that were shared.
Phyllis Gant, a member of the Lubbock NAACP, echoed some of Lopez’s sentiment in remarks she made to the crowd. Gant sat in the front row of the meeting and turned around in her chair to face those in attendance when she took the floor and spoke of the importance of LPD’s relationship with the East Lubbock community.
After getting to the bottom of their concerns with police, Gant said the community’s attention should next focus on “policing ourselves.” Gant insisted on taking some responsibility for community policing off of law enforcement.
“At the end of the day, when I hit 911 I want them to come...” Gant said. “That's why to me these meetings are critical because I need to be able to look at you. My tax dollars pay your salary, and your job saves my life — or it can.”
Community engagement meetings will continue to be held on a near-monthly basis at LPD substations. The department’s three division stations are located at 1901 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 5910 Erskine St. and 14005 Indiana Ave., and inquiries about meetings may be sent to SBergen@mylubbock.us.