Downtown Wilmington police authority

On any given Friday or Saturday night you can see plenty of Wilmington police downtown. Now, one local organization is working to give those officers more authority.

The Wilmington Police Department dedicates as much as 10% of its force to monitor downtown on the weekends. Those police officers, however, have no authority inside many local bars.

The executive director of the group, Wilmington Downtown, is proposing giving Wilmington police jurisdiction within all downtown bars. Wilmington officers currently monitor the streets, but they cannot go into bars and clubs that have a membership list.

John Hinnant said the idea is to improve the relationship between local establishments, and the police department.

Hinnant stated, “It’s a matter of developing a more proactive, positive, working relationship. That way if an incident occurs on Friday night, on Saturday morning the officer can call the owner or the operator of the bar.”

Hinnant said alcohol law enforcement is currently stretched too thin, with only eight officers covering seven counties.

Under his proposal, money previously given to the state for liquor licenses would be used to support local police.

Managers and owners of several downtown bars and restaurants said they all would be in support of the proposal.