Asheville City Council

Law enforcement took center stage at the Asheville City Council’s Feb. 20 meeting, with Council members funding several new initiatives and giving the green light to a new high-tech arm of the Police Department. But a grant to fund seat-belt-enforcement checkpoints spurred some discussion.

A wider web

In November, a presentation on Internet child pornography and online sexual predators got Council members’ attention, and they instructed Asheville Police Chief Bill Hogan to come up with ways to combat such crimes.

In response, Hogan now proposed a new investigative branch of the Criminal Investigations Division that would deal exclusively with such issues, including locally produced, Web-based child pornography.

Over the past four years, the APD has received four to six reports of child pornography or online predatory behavior a year and a larger number of other sex-crime cases, some of which involve the use of computers, Hogan told Council. Currently, only the State Bureau of Investigation has the expertise to analyze computers seized in connection with such crimes, and the agency has a backlog of about a year.

Grier Weeks, executive director of the Asheville-based National Association to Protect Children, told Xpress that SBI investigations have turned up more leads on people dealing in child pornography in Asheville. But because of the large number of cases the bureau handles, it needs to be able to hand off some of them to local offices, he said.

Weeks, who also made the November presentation to Council, said his group spends most of its time working at the federal level, but it has now begun to focus on localized enforcement as well, to create a nationwide network that leaves sexual predators with no place to hide.

“It has become incredibly clear to us that this has to be fought at the local level,” Weeks told Xpress. “Asheville has taken its first step.”

A detective has already been selected for training in “computer forensics,” including data retrieval and Web navigation. The designated detective will take courses such as CyberCop 101: Basic Data Recovery and Acquisition Training, Criminal Investigations in an Automated Environment, and the Seized Computer Evidence Recovery Specialist Program, according to a staff report. Besides child-abuse cases, the computer-forensics skills will be useful in other investigations, noted Hogan, as computers are often seized in connection with alleged drug deals and other crimes.

Weeks implored Council to approve the new staff position, noting that he expects the number of local child-pornography cases to grow in the future.

“This is one of the most important, decent, noble things a city council can do,” he said. “I can think of no better way to apply the phrase, ‘Think globally, act locally.’”

Council unanimously approved the new initiative, which is expected to become fully operational over the next eight to 12 months. The position will cost $64,796 for the first year, and $40,935 after that, according to the staff report.

Tightening the belt

A seat-belt enforcement program is slated to start up over the next year, with nighttime checkpoints set up to ensure that drivers and passengers are complying with state law, but Council’s discussion centered on the appropriateness of letting APD officers moonlight, and of government-mandated seat-belt use.

The initiative is funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and organized by the Preusser Research Group, which specializes in transportation-related issues. The company will use some of the money to buy equipment to be distributed to local law-enforcement agencies, including the APD, the Biltmore Forest Police Department, Woodfin Police Department, Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department and North Carolina State Highway Patrol. The money will cover the cost of equipment for the roadblocks and overtime pay for 10 officers for each of the 40 nights the checkpoints will be operated.

Local law enforcement was invited to participate because Western North Carolina has one of the highest rates of unbelted drivers in the country, Hogan told Council.

Police will set up checkpoints five nights a week during four two-week periods in 2007, according to a staff report, and drivers will be stopped to see if they’re belted. Preusser Research Group staff will also be on hand to compile data.

But a misunderstanding about the funding source and concerns about government regulation of private behavior sparked comment by both members of the public and some council members.

“This smacks of the best government that private money can buy,” said local activist Tim Peck, a regular at Council sessions, adding that he thinks seat-belt use should be a personal choice, not a government problem.

And Bill Fishburne argued that enforcing seat-belt laws constitutes a poor use of police resources. “In the atmosphere of Asheville right now, we have better uses for police officers,” he said.

Council member Carl Mumpower agreed, declaring: “I’m not receptive to creating a seat-belt bureaucracy in our city. And I think this creates an unfair reputation of our Police Department being heavy-handed.”

Although the program is administered by a private company, Hogan reminded Council that the funding comes from federal coffers and that local police officers often work as private security guards in their off hours to make extra money. Denying that this practice puts an undue strain on his officers, Hogan noted that seat-belt checkpoints also provide an opportunity to enforce other laws. “There are a lot of serious violent offenders who are apprehended in routine traffic stops,” he said.

A budget amendment to accept $73,000 to cover overtime pay passed on a 5-2 vote, with Mumpower and Council member Jan Davis opposed.

Gearing up

Another police-related grant won unanimous Council support. The Governor’s Highway Safety Program is awarding Asheville $131,250. Together with $43,750 in city matching funds, the grant will pay for five new cruisers plus laser-based equipment to map traffic accidents more accurately.