The Winston-Salem Police Department (WSPD) is the police department of

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

inside of Forsyth County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, United States. The department consists of 559 sworn officers and 173 non-sworn officers (). This Department serves the 5th largest city in the state, and is divided into 3 districts. The department covers the entire city, which is . The department is run by the Chief of Police, and is assisted by 3 assistant chiefs. The Chief of Police reports directly to the City Manager and the Winston-Salem City Council. The Chief of Police is Catrina A. Thompson, who has been serving since 2017.

History

The WSPD was formed when the towns of Winston and Salem merged in 1913. When the towns merged, the Winston Police Department and the Salem Police Department also merged. In 1967, a Winston-Salem policeman hit and killed a black man. Rioting broke out after his funeral on November 2 and lasted through the next night. The Winston-Salem Police and the National Guard unsuccessfully attempted to end the riots. At the time, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described these riots as "the worst outbreak of racial violence in North Carolina in this century." In October of 2018, a white officer acting as a

school resource officer The United States Department of Justice defines School Resource Officer (SRO) as "sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools." SROs are employed by a local police or sheriff's agency and work closely w ...

was accused of slamming a black female student to the ground and arresting her without provocation. The student claimed that the SRO and school administration followed her, and the officer slammed her to the ground. This situation was compared to an incident that took place in South Carolina 2 years before, where and officer was seen flipping a student to the ground. The officer was wearing a

body camera A body camera, bodycam, body worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system. Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known use is as a part of poli ...

, but due to North Carolina law, a court order was required to release the footage. This order came a month later. This footage showed that the officer asked the student to 17 times to stop and come talk to him, and an independent investigation into the incident praised the officer for his

de-escalation De-escalation is a human behavior that is intended to prevent escalation of conflicts. It may also refer to approaches in conflict resolution. People may become committed to behaviors that tend to escalate conflict, so specific measures must be ...

technique, and was found to have not broken department policy. The Ministers Conference Of Winston-Salem backed down from their calls for the officer to be fired once the footage was released, and praised the department for releasing the footage. In the summer of 2020, Winston-Salem reacted to the murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

, like many cities across the United States and World. The police response in Winston-Salem was different than in other cities, even within North Carolina. During the protests, Chief Thompson, who is black, appeared out of uniform, in civilian clothes and addressed the protesters. She made a promise that as long as the protests stayed peaceful, they would have the full support of the department, saying "I want to show the rest of America that our voices can and will be heard, and that can be done without tearing our city apart.” The protests in Winston-Salem remained peaceful throughout, even with a city population of 250,000. The protesters partnered with the police and local businesses to present a unified message, and this was praised by elected officials.

References

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External Links

Winston-Salem Police Department
Winston-Salem, North Carolina Forsyth County, North Carolina Organizations based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina Municipal police departments of North Carolina 1913 establishments in North Carolina