NEW POLL: Raleigh Voters Support More Police Accountability; Disapprove of How Their District Attorney Handles Investigations and Prosecutions.
Wake County voters are more likely to disapprove than approve of how District Attorney Lorrin Freeman is handling police accountability investigations and prosecutions.
Marcus Vanirvin faced the prospect of spending the better part of a decade in prison after the Raleigh Police Department arrested him on heroin trafficking charges. The Wake County District Attorney’s office prosecuted the case and Vanirvin spent time in jail awaiting his trial.
The problem is that the drugs the police officer’s longtime informant claimed to buy from Vanirvin and at least a dozen other Black men were fake. As the case progressed, evidence emerged that detective Abdullah knew, or should have known, that the men were arrested on false charges. But even after lab results proved their innocence, many languished in jail for months.
The City of Raleigh recently settled a civil lawsuit brought by the victims of this scam for $2 million taxpayer dollars. But Robin Mills, who is Marcus Vanirvin’s mother, told Raleigh’s local ABC11 that “no amount of money is going to erase the trauma” and that she still feels as though “somebody needs to answer for locking my baby up.”
Lorrin Freeman, Wake County District Attorney, has said that she will not prosecute detective Abdullah in the matter. For many in the Raleigh community, this refusal to prosecute is just another in a string of cases where Freeman has put police officers above the law and repeatedly ignored calls for more accountability and oversight on police violence and misconduct.
To gauge public attitudes around police accountability issues in light of this controversy surrounding the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, the Justice Research Fund commissioned a poll by Data for Progress of 360 likely voters in Wake County. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±5 percentage points.
Here are the results:
By 18 percentage points, Wake County voters are more likely to disapprove than approve of how District Attorney Lorrin Freeman is handling police accountability investigations and prosecutions. | NET APPROVE -18.
Nearly two-thirds of Wake County voters (65%) agreed that the Wake County District Attorney should create an independent unit that investigates and charges police officers accused of criminal wrongdoing.
By a 22 percentage point margin, Wake County voters are more likely to answer “yes” than “no” to the question of whether the Wake County District Attorney should create a public list of officers who have a history of misconduct or disciplinary problems.
By a 37 percentage point margin, Wake County voters are more likely to answer “yes” than “no” to the question of whether the Wake County District Attorney should not accept cases or rely on testimony from police officers who have a history of misconduct or disciplinary problems.
62% of voters, including more than three of every four Democratic voters, believe that overturning past convictions where evidence of police misconduct is found should be either the “top priority” or “a major priority” for the Wake County District Attorney.