Greensboro Police Chief Wayne Scott has announced he will retire Jan. 31, 2020, which means the city will be hiring  a new police chief and is asking for your input.

At present, there are two primary ways to let the city know what qualities you think are most important to consider when searching for the next chief law enforcement officer for Greensboro – a city with nearly 300,000 residents.

One is to fill out an online survey from Developmental Associates, which is managing the search and hiring process of the new police chief.

The other is to attend one or more of the community meetings the city is holding and voicing your opinion.

The community hearings have been scheduled throughout the city and at different times of day in an attempt to accommodate the schedules of as many people as possible.

The community forums are:

  • Monday, Sept. 23 at noon, at the Vance Chavis Branch Library, 900 S. Benbow Road
  • Monday, Sept. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 219 N. Church St.
  • Tuesday, Sept. 24 at noon at the Glenwood Branch Library, 1901 W. Florida St.
  • Monday, Sept. 30 at noon at the Hemphill Branch Library, 2301 W. Vandalia Rd.

Tuesday, Oct. 1 at noon at the Benjamin Branch Library, 1530 Benjamin Pkwy.

The police chief will be hired by City Manager David Parrish, not the Greensboro City Council, but city councilmembers will certainly have input whether they attend the community forums or not.

Parrish said, “We want to give our residents the opportunity to engage and offer input on what is most important to them in our search for a new police chief.  Because everyone has a busy schedule, we are offering an online survey in addition to in-person community meetings.  We’ll use the data we collect to help shape our search.”

One of the issues being talked about is whether it is better to promote from within the Greensboro Police Department or go outside the department.  There will be a national search, but that doesn’t mean that the new chief won’t be someone currently working for the Greensboro Police Department.