Former Durham officers defend proactive policing units in aftermath of Tyre Nichols' death in Memphis

Davis acted a day after the harrowing video emerged, saying she listened to Nichols' relatives, community leaders and uninvolved officers in making the decision.

From June 2016 to June 2021, Davis served as the Durham police chief.

People who criticize Davis say she created the specialized Scorpion unit to which the Memphis officers were assigned.

The Memphis Scorpion unit was a proactive unit that targeted high-crime areas.

A similar unit in Durham existed before, during and after Davis’ tenure in the Bull City. The Durham Police Department calls its proactive policing unit the Crime Area Target Team or CATT.

From 2012 to 2015, Robert Gaddy served as the sergeant of a previous iteration of CATT called HEAT 1. Gaddy has since retired.

“We were very effective,” Gaddy said. “We made a lot of difference.”

Gaddy said he understands why the Memphis Scorpion unit is under scrutiny for what happened to Nichols in Memphis.

“The thing is, when you paint something with a broad brush, you paint over everything,” Gaddy said. “The good and the bad.”

In Durham, Gaddy said the teams are effective.

“We're able to focus on those specific problems and deal with them directly,” Gaddy said. “Whereas a patrol officer comes in, and he or she is tied up answering radio calls for 12 hours.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Larry Smith, who also worked for decades on behalf of the Durham Police Department, rising to the rank of interim chief.

“It was a really good police community partnership as well as a proactive policing team, which is important,” Smith said.

Both former officers say it's not the team's mission, but rather the culture that can dictate how successful it is.

In Durham, they believe the culture would never be anything like what happened in Memphis.

“If you have great supervision, if you have guidance, if you have leadership, if you have organization then that roots those things out,” Gaddy said.

Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton said he will be asking the city administration to examine CATT’s operations.

“I want to be very clear, no matter how you configure or deploy officers, if you have officers that are pre-disposed to this type of violence and behavior, officers like that are going to be a problem wherever you put them,” Middleton said.

The Durham officers WRAL News spoke with on Monday had nothing but praise for Davis during her tenure in the Bull City. They also praised Davis for her handling of the situation in Memphis.