Police talk use of force on council agenda

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous talked use of force in front of city council tonight.

The conversation was inspired by events in Ferguson, MO, where riots broke out after an unarmed black teenager was shot by a white police officer.

The chief explained his department’s policies and procedures when it comes to instances like Ferguson. Evangelous said his officers have taken and are planning to take more than 30 hours of training to improve their response to different types of communities. He also discussed the department’s use of military style equipment saying that is used only in the most extreme situations.

Councilman Earl Sheridan asked for the presentation. He says it was in response to community concern about the department, but he felt the chief stepping up and answering questions like this was a good thing.

“I know that the police want to do community policing,” Sheridan said. “And I think that as long as there are people out there who don’t trust the police and are concerned about that kind of thing, it hurts the police department as far as being able to do good community policing.”

Sheridan said he hoped tonight’s presentation goes a long way in restoring community confidence in our police department. Some of the concern Sheridan said he had was seeing military style response to peaceful protests in Ferguson.

Chief Evangelous said the kind of training his officers have, including himself, on things like crowd control, would keep anything like that from happening here.