The local daily covered the public meeting held to collect input on the Asheville Police Department. It shared the following:

Anna Harris lives in the South French Broad area and has had to deal with violence and drugs in her community. She was even a victim once, when someone broke into her home.

Many participants agreed the department’s biggest area for improvement was sensitivity training. Many thought officers could interact better with people of different races and economic backgrounds.

Coverage in the Mountain Xpress corroborated belief in that cause-and-effect relationship:

Michelle Harrison said that her house had been fired at five times, but that no detective followed up to let her know more about the danger she faced. “It’s like the Wild, Wild West,” she told Xpress after the session ended.

The attendees had a variety of different priorities, including equal treatment, less stereotyping, more drug enforcement, a more diverse police force (especially more African-American officers), civilian liaisons in neighborhoods, and a stricter disciplinary process for officer misconduct.