Wilmington City Council interviewing candidates to succeed police chief Williams

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Wilmington City Council held a special meeting on Thursday, as they began the process of finding a successor for Police Chief Donny Williams.

Chief Williams announced his impending retirement in January, saying his last day would be no later than June 30th.

The Wilmington native was sworn in as an officer in 1992 and was appointed the city’s first black police chief in June of 2020.

Seven candidates are being considered, including internal options from the Wilmington Police Department.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said he is looking for certain qualities for the new chief to have.

“How does that chief interact with the community?” Saffo said. “How do they communicate with the media and the public when we have an emergency or an incident that might happen? How does, how does, how do they work with the internal aspects of the organization?”

Saffo added that the future of the department, especially with regards to new technology, is also an important factor.

“We all know that artificial intelligence is on the way. We have a lot of technology that we are using currently and we know that technology is gonna be the wave of the future. And how you integrate all those systems and how do you work together? And what kind of investments would they be expecting us to make?”

Saffo said half of the candidates were interviewed on Thursday, with the other half to be interviewed on Friday.

He expects the new chief to be announced a few days before Chief Williams retires, with the final day of interviews to be held on June 27th.