How Carrboro's new police chief is working to reflect community values

This article was written for our sponsor, the Triangle Regional Recruitment Partnership.

Carrboro has a new chief of police.

While Chris Atack was appointed to the position in February, he's been involved in law enforcement for much longer, working at the police department since 1999.

Atack began his career as a patrol officer and has worked in a number of roles since, including as a school resource officer, investigator, lieutenant in community services and criminal investigations, public information officer, firearms instructor, patrol captain and administrative services captain.

This experience, coupled with increased awareness of the need for equity and diversity, has shaped his goals for the department.

"I want us to maintain the ability to do what we do well and develop and improve in areas that we can do better," said Atack. "We have a great relationship with our community and enjoy consistently high ratings in community surveys."

The most recently available survey of Carrboro residents from 2018 shows the police department earned top marks, with 'As' for courtesy and response time, and 'A-minuses' for fairness and problem solving.

Even with those high scores, Atack is focused on continual improvement. In particular, he hopes to boost the department's focus on community safety and harm reduction.

"We need to be part of solutions that bring lasting fixes to social problems and not just employ stop-gap techniques that are sometimes simplistic and do nothing to address underlying causes," said Atack. "This more holistic approach is more resource-intensive, but I am hopeful that it will be a better answer to many of the situations that we face as a society."

In an effort to improve the police force, Atack is looking to the community for feedback.

In 2020, the newly formed Carrboro Connects program reached out to ask residents what they liked about the town and what improvements they wanted to see.

During an interview process that took place over a series of 22 virtual meetings, residents praised Carrboro for being inclusive, diverse, walkable, progressive and having a small-town sense of community, among other things. They said they choose to live in the town for many reasons, including the free transit, schools, vibrance, and it's a good place to raise kids.

As for concerns, respondents wanted to see more focus on racial equity and police transformation, among other issues, while avoiding implementing only temporary solutions. These are the kinds of changes Atack plans to make, and he's starting by recruiting a new generation of officers.

"I embrace the concept of continuous improvement for our organization, and I hope to be able to hire new officers who reflect a renewed focus on community service and compassionate law enforcement services," said Atack. "We want officers who are great communicators, enjoy working with the public, see challenges as opportunities, and want to work for the betterment of our community."

The department is working to hire four new officers with the potential for more hires by the end of the year. Atack also hopes to hire more women and people of color to improve the diversity of the department.

"I learned law enforcement from a diverse group of officers, and I want us to have that capability again," said Atack. "It is important for us to reflect our community in our makeup, and I am hoping to work with community partners and make progress on this issue."

The Triangle Region, which stretches across Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange and Wake counties, is looking for officers who want to help build a coalition of community-driven police departments — and the efforts of Atack and his police force are helping to accomplish that goal.

This article was written for our sponsor, the Triangle Regional Recruitment Partnership.