By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
RALEIGH – Emancipate NC Executive Director Dawn Blagrove has advocated extensively for the termination of Raleigh Police officer D.C. Twiddy. Blagrove welcomed the news of Twiddy’s December retirement but said there still are questions.
“It is also shameful that the city of Raleigh could not do, and did not do, what was right and fire this man,” she said. “If this person is not worthy of being fired, then what does one have to do to be fired from the Raleigh Police Department?”
Blagrove was referring to Twiddy’s role in the 2016 shooting death of Akiel Jenkins, for which Twiddy never was charged with a crime. Twiddy’s social media postings – including conjecture about the Juneteenth holiday’s validity – have drawn scrutiny, too.
RPD officers accrue benefits as part of the Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System – among those administered by the Office of the N.C. State Treasurer. Twiddy, for example, retired with 15 years of police service, and thus, was eligible to earn 1.75 vacation days per month or up to 21 days per year. RPD officers earn 12 sick days per year and may have an unlimited number. All vacation days over 50 become sick days.
These details are significant as unused sick days can extend an employee’s creditable service for retirement calculation purposes. Twiddy received at least two raises in 2024 before his retirement. Thus, his average salary for his highest earnings over a four-year span used to calculate a retirement benefit received a boost. Unused vacation days also may increase his earnings.
“The system just is designed to protect officers who look a certain way,” Blagrove said. “That is despite having a Black woman at the helm of that police department.”
RPD Chief Estella Patterson will retire on March 1 – 43 months since becoming chief in August 2021.
A “retired” officer who has not reached 30 years of creditable service at any age or other full benefits provisions can go to another Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System job anywhere in North Carolina, and increase his creditable service and average salary for retirement benefit purposes.
Blagrove is encouraged by ongoing collaborations with Raleigh city leaders concerning development of a new alternative: non-law enforcement response to matters where mental health and temporal needs may be root causes. Still, the potential for economic discrimination relative to active duty and retired officers reaping benefits is real.
“The reality is that those of us who want stronger, safer, better communities are winning,” Blagrove said. “We are just going to have to continue to push. We cannot let up.”
