New regulations for Chapel Hill taxi drivers are in the works.

The town is considering a new ordinance that could limit the fees charged by taxi drivers and impose new rules to make sure taxi companies are safe and fair to passengers.

The Chapel Hill Town Council  has scheduled a hearing to get feedback from residents about  the regulations Monday night.

The new rules could require taxi drivers to get a permit, charge a flat-rate, require a taxi franchise to have more than one vehicle, and add pedi-cabs as a regulated transportation mode.

Taxi companies would be inspected at least once a year by the Chapel Hill Police Department, which would designate responsibilities into a formal office of "taxicab inspector," Chief Chris Blue told the council Monday night.

The town may also explore putting taxi stands downtown, he said.

"When we're trying to monitor the many companies in Chapel Hill if they're congregated in one location, it makes it a lot easier for our officers out and about to see that they're licenced businesses," he said.

The rules come after a petition by former UNC Student Body President Mary Cooper last year, who said regulations were needed to make sure students were safe and charged fairly.

Town officials met with a number of taxi company owners over several months, Blue said. One of the key issues raised had to do with predictable rates and fares, he said. 

"Sometime they charge significantly higher rates because the number of trips they're able to complete on a night with lots of traffic is significantly reduced," he said.

The council will hold a hearing on June 18.

The Chapel Hill Town Council has apologized "for the actions taken against the press on Nov. 13." That was the day police made arrests at the former Yates Motor Co. building at 419 W. Franklin St., which had been occupied by protestors.

Two journalists were detained. One of them was Katelyn Ferral, a reporter for The N&O and Chapel Hill News. Before police arrived, Ferral was on the scene for about 15 minutes, interviewing people inside the building and walking around the site. When police approached the building they ordered everyone to get to the ground but allowed Ferral to shoot photographs. After a few more minutes, they told her to get on the ground. She told them she was a reporter and provided identification. She remained face-down on the ground for 15 minutes, was cuffed and then detained for about 30 minutes before being released. 

It's clear Chapel Hill police didn't know what to do about the journalists. They knew Ferral wasn't doing anything illegal; otherwise they would have charged her. She in no way hindered their work. If police thought Ferral was in their way (and no one representing Chapel Hill police has ever said this, including Chief Chris Blue when I later met with him), they could have directed Ferral to a spot away from the action. Other police agencies in the Triangle routinely direct reporters to a spot deem appropriate by police. But Chapel Hill police had no written policy on how to work with journalists at a crime scene. Since then, I have shared Raleigh's written policy with town officials and met with Blue and Roger Stancil, town manager, to talk about how journalists and police can work together. It's in everybody's best interest -- police and those being arrested -- for independent observers to record the proceedings. Blue agrees with this. The presence of journalists can help protect police from unfounded claims of inappropriate force.

There was no reason to detain Ferral, other than police didn't know what to do with her. In this country, that's not a good enough reason to force a citizen to lie face down and be cuffed.  

A majority of the council recognized that. We accept their apology and will work with Chapel Hill to help police and journalists do their jobs. --John Drescher

The Chapel Hill Police Department may have a new chief by the end of the month.
Assistant Police Chief Chris Blue, who was the second-highest ranked applicant for the job in 2007, is going through an assessment process for the job.
Current chief Brian Curran plans to retire next month. Curran has been chief since 2007. He hadn't applied for the job but was chosen after former Fayetteville Police Chief Tom McCarthy failed a physical with high blood pressure.
“A rigorous set of experiences and expectations has been established to assess Assistant Chief Blue’s skills in real time with real issues,” Town Manager Roger Stancil said.
Stancil informed the Town Council in June 2010 that he believed the best way to continue this momentum of progress in the department was to first consider internal candidates for the chief’s position. Internal candidates eligible to apply for the position were three captains and the two assistant chiefs. Blue was the only one to apply.
The town is assessing Blue based on criteria developed through community input sessions.

They don't like how Chapel Hill police handled protesters at a Burger King and an Army recruitment station, nor how they mistakenly detained downtown barber Charles Brown last summer. Now local activists and the NAACP want to know what the Town Council is going to do about their two-year-old request for a panel of citizens to review complaints against the Chapel Hill Police Department.

"Too much time has elapsed," said octagenarian Barry Freeman, who was arrested in 2007 while protesting Army recruiters on Franklin Street. "We've been told that the police can police themselves. That hasn't happened in the past. ... We deserve to have our request for a police review board acted on."

"It is time for Chapel Hill to move quickly," said the Rev. Robert Seymour, former pastor of Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, pointing out that Durham already has a police review board. "My friends, this is not a radical idea."

 The Town Council received Freeman's petition but did not take any action on it Monday night.