Greensboro’s loss is UNC Chapel Hill’s gain.

Greensboro Police Chief Brian James isn’t going to be retired for very long.

UNC announced that James would take over as the chief of the UNC Police on July 1.

In April, James announced that he was retiring as chief of the Greensboro Police Department on May 31. So James will work his 24/7 job as Greensboro police chief until the end of May, take the month of June off and then report to work on July 1.

James is a native of Greensboro and a graduate of Page High School and North Carolina A&T State University.  He began his work in law enforcement with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department and joined the Greensboro Police Department in 1996 and moved up the ranks until he was promoted to chief on Feb. 1, 2020.

UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz announced James had been hired in a letter that states, “In our recruitment for a new police chief, the search committee made it the highest priority not just to find someone with police and safety experience, but also to find a leader who puts the community first and has a history of developing relationships within their community.  I am confident that Chief James upholds these values.”

The UNC Police have 60 sworn officers and 19 reserve officers.

Greensboro has an authorized police force of 679 sworn officers and currently has about 100 vacancies, which means Greensboro has more vacancies than the UNC Police have in sworn and reserve officers combined.

James started a number of successful outreach programs to engender better relationships between the Police Department and the community during his tenure as Greensboro police chief.

According to the UNC Police website, “The UNC Police Department’s greatest goal is to provide customer-focused and problem solving services in partnership with the diverse community it serves. The UNC Police Department strives to achieve this goal through community oriented policing (COP) efforts which includes COP programming, crime prevention and fostering relationships with the community on and off campus.”

It sounds like James will fit right in.