RAEFORD - Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin says he is living his childhood dream.
Ever since he was a boy of 6 and growing up in Jones Hill, an economically depressed, African-American community in Hoke County, Peterkin has wanted to be a cop.
He has served as an officer for almost 31 years, first starting in 1987 with the Fayetteville Police Department.
But he says when he looks at today’s frayed relations between law enforcement and the people they serve, he is troubled. That’s why he has written a book, to be published next month, “How to Stop for a Cop: Reconnecting Law Enforcement and the Community.”
The book offers advice for both citizens and police officers during a traffic stop - and beyond. His goal is to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Peterkin says: “The book is about two things: Saving lives of the officer and the driver, the community. The second reason is to rebuild the public trust between the two.”
The book will use real-life examples of police encounters, some from his own department.
“A lot of the community has the perception that we don’t accept blame in this,” says Peterkin, who is 55. “I am admitting in the book we have some fault in this. We have done wrong, too.”
He said police officers have more responsibility for the outcome of a stop because they are trained and have the authority to initiate the encounter.
Peterkin is prepared that some officers may not like his conclusions. But he says officers with ethics and integrity “should not have a problem being reminded of what they swore to do from day 1.”
Subjects include community policing, training, reasonable suspicion and probable cause, racial profiling and use of force. He includes a step-by-step guide for drivers and officers during a traffic stop.
He says he himself has been the driver in questionable stops. He says research is clear that black drivers tend to be more fearful and stressed during a stop.
“The fear is real to them,” he says. “We can’t overlook that.”
But he adds research also shows that “all races have some concerns about being pulled over.”
The first thing officers should do after a stop is tell drivers why they were stopped, he says. It’s something Peterkin learned at the Fayetteville department.
The driver should remain calm, he says, and look for a safe place to pull over.
Also: “Don’t assume immediately if you are a black driver, he’s a white officer, that this is a racial situation. Please don’t do that.”
Peterkin says: “Based on my experience and training, if the cop and the driver both respectfully do the right thing during a traffic stop there is a zero possibility that there will be confrontations, fights, arguing, shootings and killing by the side of the road …My slogan in the book is ‘Stay alive.’ ”
In Hoke, Peterkin has command of just under 100 deputies. The department focuses on community policing. It outfitted all deputies with body cams in 2015, before Fayetteville Police did. It hosts several outreach events, including National Night Out and a Latino Community Unity Party.
Peterkin wants to start a statewide task force on policing that brings together grassroots activists, government officials, teen drivers, the NAACP, Black Lives Matter and others. He will hear from any group, as long as they are coming to talk solutions, not place blame.
Officers and the community need to change the way they think about each other, he says.
“Give law enforcement another chance,” he says. “For the most part, our officers are good.”
He asks the community to “give us an opportunity to continue loving them, and protecting them, because we can’t do it without them.”
As for police, leadership has a responsibility to weed out bad apples, he says.
“I say to law enforcement: Let’s remain professional. Don’t misuse our authority. We don’t want to keep adding to the distrust.”
Columnist Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.