Police Chief Lopez Talks Immigration, Crime and Hope at Duke Chapel Event

Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. said Tuesday the drug trade, untreated mental illness and inadequate immigration laws are the greatest challenges his force faces in combating crime.

Lopez spoke in Duke Chapel Nov. 9 to an audience of 25 people as part of a public conversation with Chapel Dean Sam Wells. The event was the first this year of the chapel's dean's dialogues "Listening to the Heart of Durham" series.

While naming ills of the city, Lopez also said he's proud to live Durham and that, "In this city, you have a community who is willing to be engaged."

When asked by Wells how he views the charged issue of immigration policy, Lopez said he sees a need for federal immigration reform but would not, as chief of police, offer specifics.

"I thought I would be one of the very few Latinos here -- being that I'm Puerto Rican -- and when I got here I was very surprised to see how many Latinos and Hispanics are in this community," said Lopez, a native of Brooklyn who came to Durham from Connecticut in 2007 to become police chief. "The political issue of immigration is making others see what was already there for a long time.

"For the police officers of Durham, we treat everyone extremely humane; we treat everyone as we would treat everyone else," he said. "The issue of citizenship is not our concern."

The police chief said mental illness is an increasingly frequent problem his officers have to handle.

"There are a lot of people out there who we encounter, who we spend a lot of time with that we wind up arresting that really need help; they need to get their lives in order," Lopez said. "And the police don't do that."

Lopez also cited a familiar cycle of drugs, poverty and addiction as giving rise to drug-related crimes in Durham.

On a positive note, he extolled the work of city manager Thomas Bonfield in coordinating city services to address issues that cannot be improved by policing alone. He also congratulated Duke for its efforts toward Durham's welfare.

"I've seen Duke's footprint in just about everywhere in the city to some extent, whether that extent be physical in property -- developing some place where Duke can do business -- or in some charitable sense," he said.

In explaining the chapel's approach to engagement with neighboring communities, Wells said, "I've tried to make the chapel part of these conversations rather than that we lead them."

He said Christ's promise to be among the poor is why the Chapel seeks to have a presence in the West End neighborhood through programs for communal living, student formation and acts of service.

"We're doing this because we want to meet Jesus," he said.