x
Breaking News
More () »

'The hard part is overall retention and recruiting' | Greensboro police work to fill vacancies within Homicide Division

Right now, the unit is down two detectives with the potential of two more set to retire soon.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro police said over the last five years, homicides have increased across the city. 

Where the numbers would usually average around 26 homicides a year, they now sit at around 55 a year, and over 70 were reported last year. 

This year alone, the city has already had eight homicides. 

However, the unit assigned to investigate these murders has some vacancies, which could impact the amount of work detectives are taking on.

The Criminal Investigation Unit, specifically the homicide division, has a team of 13 people: one sergeant, two corporals, and ten detectives.

Right now, that unit is down two detectives, and two more could soon retire.

The process of filling these important roles isn’t easy.

Experienced detectives are required to transition into that role.

Greensboro Police Captain Ashley Brown explained how the department determines who is ready.

"Your career goal to get there is years. In your first year of the Academy, field training, and just being out on your own for that first year, and then you probably have three or four years to hone your skills as a police officer on the street. Then you may have the chance to come into the Criminal Investigations Division, and usually that starts off with crimes against person, robbery, property crimes, frauds those types of things. Usually you don’t go straight to a homicide then you probably have another year or so developing learning skills before you move forward on a detective," Captain Brown explained.  

This squad investigates homicides, suicides, non-motor vehicle accidental deaths, cold cases, and all other unattended death cases.

The team averages 100 cases a year with about six to seven per detective plus whatever other cases they are looking into.

As explained before, it’s a long process to become one of these detectives.

Every six months, interviews are conducted to see what officers are interested in and start the process.

But even that has been difficult.

"The hard part is overall retention and recruiting. If you look at our agency, we have close to 60 vacancies in patrol. For a specialized unit like CID you are going to pull people from patrol. That’s where they are going to come from. If you have 60 vacancies it’s really hard for them to give you anybody for them to come over here," Captain Brown said. 

Over the last couple of years, civilians have actually been hired to help with some of the workload. 

Captain Brown explained, "We recently did some restructuring for professional staff, so civilians can come in and take some of the jobs that you don't need a sworn police officer to do. We are thinking the same thing here. Is there a way to allow civilians to come in to help with investigations to work cases for us and be the investigative assistant with us?"

We reached out to other departments to see where they sat. 

Currently, High Point’s Police Department Violent Crimes Unit has one vacancy.

They need one detective who would handle robbery and homicide investigations.

When fully staffed, the VCU has seven people.

In Burlington, their police department has a major crime unit within the Criminal Investigations Division. They are currently fully staffed with eight detectives and one sergeant. 

Over in Winston, they are also fully staffed with 10 detectives. The police department said some detectives were moved around last year in order to ensure homicide was filled as the increase in homicides continues.

MORE WAYS TO GET WFMY NEWS 2

Subscribe to our daily newsletter, Let’s Get 2 It!

Download the WFMY News 2 APP from your Apple or Google Play store.

ADD THE WFMY+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE

ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or search for WFMY.

Amazon Fire TV: Search for WFMY to find the free app to add to your account. You can also add the app directly to your Fire TV through your Amazon account.

Before You Leave, Check This Out