Fayetteville Police Department

Who polices the police? Protesters rising up against George Floyd’s death and police violence have raised this question, including in Fayetteville. The Fayetteville City Council voted in support of establishing a citizens advisory board for issues of police misconduct at a special meeting Monday night. 

Gina Hawkins made history last summer when she became the first woman and first African-American police chief of Fayetteville. She is now one of six African-American women at the helm of police departments around the state. But when Hawkins took the job, she had no idea it would garner so much national attention, including an interview on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today.”

The drug naloxone has become key in saving lives from opioid overdoses. It’s such a vital tool for fighting the opioid epidemic that many law enforcement officers in North Carolina now carry it with them at all times.

Editor's note:  This story is part of an occasional series on what area community leaders and residents are doing to balance "peace and pride" in their neighborhoods.

In 2009, a sheriff’s deputy in mostly rural Orange County pulled over slightly more than 100 drivers. In most cases, the deputy determined equipment in the driver’s vehicle was malfunctioning and in a few that the vehicle was traveling unsafely along the road. The deputy stopped drivers for reasons that starkly contrasted those of most Orange County deputies, who pulled over a majority for unsafe driving and a relative few for malfunctioning equipment.