Chief: New police program decreasing gang violence in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington’s police chief says crime and gang violence are on the decline thanks to a new abatement program the department has been working on.

Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous says about two years ago they started looking at gangs and gang injunctions, modeled after California and Texas, and at some of their problem hotels and motels on Market Street.

He says they put together an aggressive civil abatement program and so far it’s working.

“The good news is that most of those hotels, the problem hotels have come into voluntary compliance with some agreements,” Evangelous said. “We’ve seen crime decrease, calls to service decrease in the hotel corridors.”

He also says they’ve seen a decrease in shot spotter activations with the gang injunctions.

Evangelous says this year is already looking to be another year of record low violence in the city.