PEMBROKE – The police officer under investigation for pepper-spraying a group of people at a football tailgate at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s homecoming game is no longer employed at the university.
An email was recently sent out about the closing of the university’s investigation by the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Lisa Schaeffer. According to The Robesonian in Lumberton, that email did not include the officer’s name or state if the officer resigned or was fired.
Following the investigation was a Police and Public Safety Forum on Tuesday, hosted by the Student Government Association, where students, faculty and staff gathered to express questions, comments and concerns at the University Center Annex.
Some spoke with a panel of police officers from the Department of Police and Public Safety or wrote questions and concerns to help “move forward” from the situation.
Seven officers were on the panel along with SGA President Thomas Crowe-Allbritton.
Most students’ concerns were whether or not the mandatory trainings officers were receiving to handle situations like the incident in question were effective.
Another concern was the tailgate policy issued on Aug. 29, 2017 — including how often it was updated and how to better educate students, faculty and staff on those policies.
President of the National Pan-Hellenic Council Cassidy Ray asked about the reasoning the community tailgate at Lot 14, behind the Jones Health and Physical Education building, is able to tailgate later but the student tailgate in Lot 24, near the Grace P. Johnson Stadium, is forced to stop 10 minutes before the game.
Chief of Police and Public Safety McDuffie Cummings Jr. claimed the department is looking to correct those scheduling tailgating concern.
There were also recommendations from the students for the officers to have a more diverse department to help them with certain situations.
Lt. Derrick Locklear said the department is trying to hire a more diverse people, “but it’s hard to get more people from different cultural backgrounds who want to go through the process of being an officer.”
Cummings said he would like to communicate and continue to hold dialogues like the forum with the students to be able to learn more about what the campus community expects from the police department.
Students felt it was also important for the officers to communicate with them and be empathetic to their concerns.
“Even though there is an unspoken thing that the [student] tailgate ends at 4 p.m.,” Pembroke Activities Council Board of Trustees Chair Karijah Pinkney said. “Yeah, we understand that, but I would’ve liked to hear that.”
Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety and Emergency Operations Travis Bryant stated that, although the university finished its process with the officer from the pepper-spraying incident, the department cannot discuss the second stage of the process until “the state makes the decision.”
More information will be released once the decision has been made.
Octavia Johnson is a fall semester intern from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.