With an annual budget of around $1.3 million, Port City United is part of the county's three-year, $40 million 'Community Building Plan." Harrison outlined PCU’s three branches: violence interruption, a 24/7 confidential support hotline, and community resource coordinators.
Harrison said he’s made changes to the department – specifically the hotline — which was originally conceived as part of a surveillance program, fielding tips about possible criminal activity – paired with social media monitoring.
But Harrison says he’s not in the surveillance business.
“That was what I had read about, you know, 24-hour surveillance and monitoring social media. I was like, ugh, that's not what I'm signing up to do. And you go and look at the job announcement now about the ‘connect center,’ you won't see that in the job announcement on the county website," he said.
Now, the hotline has evolved into a resource line. People can call in with a host of issues, from food scarcity to unemployment, and the county can connect them with local resources.
According to the county, "PCU Connect, [is] a 24-7, locally manned contact center where community members can get connected with resources, receive support, and anonymously report threats of incoming violence and other concerns not addressed through 911 or mental health hotlines."
Harrison addressed concerns raised by some in the community, including members of Sokoto House, about the security of data and personal information acquired by the hotline. Harrison and his team emphasized that the hotline would not record things like social security numbers or full names and that anyone who wanted to stay anonymous could do so.
The other two aspects of the PCU program are community resource coordinators and violence interruption. The former involves a street team that will essentially canvas neighborhoods prone to community violence, areas that are also predominantly low-income and minority – Harrison mentioned several Wilmington Housing Authority developments, as well as other low-income neighborhoods - and connect people with local resources. The latter involves using team members’ ties to the community to predict and prevent eruptions of violence.
PCU is based on Durham’s Bull City United and other Cure Violence models, which often involve social media surveillance — a tactic used by law enforcement, as well — but Harrison said by the time evidence of impending community violence makes it to platforms like Facebook, it’s already too late. He said using relationships with the community, his team can get involved earlier, and more effectively, to prevent escalation.
Harrison also addressed a concern raised by some, including Sheriff Ed McMahon, that PCU is hiring gang-affiliated members.
Harrison called the concern "low-hanging fruit," and defended gang membership as the only sense of family for some community members, a situation Harrison said is the result of generations of systematic oppression and violence against marginalized groups.
Harrison suggested that gang members could use their influence for good, a philosophy also embraced by Wilmington-based Tru Colors.
“...because of that connection that they do have, because of that influence, because of the things that they've done to make themselves credible amongst their peers, we want to use that leverage, we want to be able to use those folks, as the first change agents to what's going on," Harrison said.
