City Council may be eager to reform policing in Fayetteville. Still, the head of the Police Accountability Community Task Force, Shaun McMillan, said consideration “might be messy and uncomfortable” for council members. The group is proposing the creation of a Civilian Police Oversight Authority. Demands to increase the power of police oversight has gained traction as protests in North Carolina against police brutality continue since the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. The Raleigh City Council voted unanimously this month to ask the state to grant more power to that city’s new police advisory board, which was formed in February. Fayetteville City Council has agreed to establish a police advisory board, but the Fay PACT wants a Civilian Police Oversight Authority to have jurisdiction over the review board.

“I need to see (current) data,” Councilman Johnny Dawkins said. “It’s disappointing to me, you come in here with demands.” Dawkins has been outspoken in his criticism of anything more than a review board.