Council approves funding for mobile field force

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – The City of Wilmington posted its lowest crime numbers ever in 2012, but Chief Ralph Evangelous isn’t resting on his laurels.

Despite that fact Wilmington police chief Ralph Evangelous stepped in front of the City Council asking for over $300,000 to help his department evolve.

“The bad guys are getting smarter and smarter and they’re using technology,” said Chief Ralph Evangelous. “They’re mobile, they’re in vehicles, so we need to continue to be after them and try to keep our community safe.”

The Wilmington City Council voted unanimously to approve the funding for what Chief Evangelous is calling a mobile field force.

“This new mobile field force will be split into two different teams,” said Evangelous. “One is a uniformed six person team which will be highly visible in and around neighborhoods and the second team is going to be a plain clothes undercover team to focus on repeat offenders and bad guys who are out there in the streets victimizing our citizens.”

The 12-man team will feature five new hires into the force and Chief Evangelous says they will be unlike any team the department currently has.

“We’ll be able to move these people anywhere in the city we need them we can deploy them immediately, which will give us the ability to respond to developing trends neighborhood to neighborhood or area to area,” said Evangelous. “We’ll be able to move with it and be there.”