Raleigh City Council Meeting - January 20, 2026
Raleigh City Council Meeting - January 20, 2026
The Raleigh City Council met on January 20, 2026, at 6:00 PM. The meeting included presentations on police technology, a memorandum of agreement with the Dix Park Conservancy, multiple public hearings, and a major rezoning case for North Hills. The council approved a GPS tracking system for police, a technology upgrade contract with Axon, and several annexations, and voted 6-2 to approve the North Hills rezoning with additional community benefits.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of minutes from January 6 and January 13, 2026, was unanimous.
- The consent agenda included item C1A (Star Chase GPS tracking system), which was pulled for discussion but later approved.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lawrence Yelly criticized the city's budget process, staffing vacancy data, and FOIA responsiveness, urging council to question salary increases and property tax assumptions.
- Mamakai Sanders expressed concern about environmental destruction, climate change, and the loss of natural ecosystems in Raleigh, urging better environmental stewardship.
- Helen Kirvin opposed the Big Branch Greenway Connector's Streamside West Route, claiming the city breached a conservation easement and presented false claims. She noted the Parks Board voted 9-5 against the route.
- Kevin Kwong advocated for improved transit in North Hills, including extending bus routes and restoring direct airport service.
- Benji Caps (Executive Director, Miracle League of the Triangle) proposed a partnership to create a universally designed playground and play plaza at the existing Miracle League field on Queensland Road.
- Octavia Rainey shared experiences from door-knocking in Oakwood, highlighting racial tensions and the threat of development to historically Black neighborhoods.
- Jane Hubbard (homeowner bordering Big Branch) opposed the greenway, citing lower-cost alternatives and the Parks Board's opposition.
- Dorothy Barrow spoke about failures in the mental health system, particularly the ACT team's neglect of her son during a crisis, and called for accountability.
- Athena Wallen urged the city to maintain diverse tree canopy and root systems along stormwater creeks, emphasizing the need for updated policies.
Discussion Items
- Star Chase GPS Tracking System (C1A): Chief Rico Boyce presented the system as a tool to reduce high-speed pursuits. Funded by the Raleigh Police Department Foundation ($0 taxpayer cost). Discussion included data privacy, integration with existing systems, and transparency. Councilmember Jones raised concerns about process and lack of background. Motion to approve passed with a voice vote (unanimous in favor).
- Police Technology Upgrade (Axon Contract): Chief Boyce requested approval for a 10-year, $1.6 million per year contract with Axon for a new records management system, Taser 10 devices, and the FUCSIS Connect Raleigh platform. He noted 22 Taser deployments in 2025 out of 320,000 contacts. Discussion covered data security, use-of-force continuum, and post-incident reporting. Motion to approve was unanimous.
- Dix Park Conservancy Memorandum of Agreement: Stephen Bentley (Parks Director) and Ruffin Hall (Conservancy) presented updates to the partnership, including a new Dix Park Commission, streamlined roles, and focus on buildings and fundraising. Council approved the MOA unanimously.
- Rezoning Z3425 (North Hills): The applicant sought to increase building heights (up to 37 stories) while keeping the same development entitlement. Conditions added: $500,000 for Raleigh Fire, affordable housing contribution ($40,000 per unit for 1% of units), and restricted access on Rowan Street. Debate centered on consistency with the Midtown Area Plan, traffic, and public benefits. Motion to approve passed 6-2.
Key Outcomes
- Star Chase GPS Tracking: Approved (voice vote, unanimous).
- Axon Technology Contract: Approved (unanimous).
- Dix Park MOA: Approved (unanimous).
- Rezoning Z3425 (North Hills): Approved 6-2.
- Public Hearings:
- Bond anticipation notes (Series 2026 and refunding) approved.
- Demolition lien for 617 South Blunt Street approved.
- Public nuisance liens for 9 properties approved (one paid).
- Annexations: Three annexations approved (Blue Run Lane, Old Wake Forest Road, Garner Road) effective January 20, 2026.
- Smoking Ordinance Amendment: Approved with effective date April 20, 2026.
- Appointments: Confirmed for Civil Service Commission, Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Commission, Park Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board, Board of Directors for Raleigh Sister Cities, Stormwater Management Advisory Commission, and others.
- Transportation & Transit Committee: Meeting scheduled for January 29, 2026, on citizen-initiated street closures; Six Forks Road discussion postponed to February 2026.
- Closed Session: Entered closed session to consider personnel matters.
Meeting Transcript
All right. We will bring the meeting to order. First item of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. And um Counselor Fort, can you help lead us? Do we have approval of the remainder? So moat. Second. All in favor of that motion, aye. All opposed, nay. All right, so that's unanimous. And then we will call up Don Myers from the police department to discuss C One A. Or Chief Boyce. At the time, the only resource or the tool we had to bring a vehicle pursuit to a safe end were stop sticks. Stopsticks were used quite frequently throughout the country as well as here in RPD for many years. What we saw was that officers were getting killed throughout the country by deploying these stop sticks, as well as vehicles would continue to move forward and cause additional damage after being the tires being stopped by the stop sticks. So it wasn't a very useful tool. So RPD leadership, many, many years ago, we stopped using stop sticks. And since then, early 2000s, we have not had anything in our inventory to address bringing vehicle pursuits to an end. With that mindset and that history of Stop 6 here in the RPD, when I was selected as chief, I tasked my senior leadership team with identifying equipment that we could use here in the Capitol City to bring vehicle pursuits to a safe end and make sure that we are keeping our community safe as well as the officers that put their life on the line each and every day. The recommendation to start looking at Star Chase was presented to me in April of 2025. I started asking questions about this product, started talking to other chiefs throughout the country of what is Star Chase, and is Star Chase a very useful tool for the department. So that leads me here to my PowerPoint here. What is Star Chase? It is a GPS-based tracking system. It is almost just look, think of it as an air tag that law enforcement deploys on a vehicle that is fleeing a lawful traffic stop. Or if we have probable calls to believe that a vehicle has committed a crime and the occupants within that need to be taken into custody, we can deploy Star Chase before a vehicle pursuit happens. This is only a GPS tracker that is used in live real time. It allows us as law enforcement to safely track a fleeing vehicle without engaging in a high speed pursuit. This is very timely if you think back just last week. Now thank goodness none of them was were initiated by RPD, but this is a thing that we must address here at RPD. What will we do if we initiate a vehicle pursuit? And how can we ensure that we keep our community safe when we initiate a vehicle pursuit? When officers deploy one of these tags, and I have one here to show you what it looks like. When they deploy that tag onto an offender's vehicle, it triggers and activate a GPS tracker. From there, members of our real-time crime center, back in our detective division can safely monitor that vehicle in a very short period of time. Thank you. Is to hold offenders accountable and to bring a chase to a safe end while keeping our community safe. Here is what a tracker looks like, and I'm going to pass it to Madam City Attorney, and you can pass it around. That tracker is deployed from a launcher on the front of a patrol vehicle, and I'll get into that more here in a second. You are asking what is the public safety benefits? That is the number one goal with any equipment that we have here in the Raleigh Police Department is safety. Safety for our community, safety for our officers that use this equipment. I will tell you, Star Chase reduces the need for high-speed pursuits. Once that tracker is attached to an offender's vehicle, we can safely back off that vehicle and not continue to follow it and encourage that violator to continue to drive in a very erratic manner from what we've seen. We all can go on YouTube and see the destruction and a harm that a vehicle pursuit can cause in a city. I don't want that as a chief. My officers don't want that. We as city leaderships don't want that here in the Capitol City. It also decreases the risk to pedestrian, motorists, and officers by using Star Chase, because we can allow technology to do what it is intended to do and allow us to track that vehicle from a safe distance and not put the general public in any type of harm. It also allows officers to disengage while maintaining situational awareness.
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