Whiteville police award general certifications and announce promotions within department

Whiteville Police Chief Brockenbach presented two state general certifications and announced several promotions within the police department during the council meeting.

The chief described the certification process to the council: “When you become a law enforcement officer in [the] state of North Carolina, you go through basic law enforcement training, which is evolving every year. Now it's 826 hours.” He explained that officers complete basic training, are hired by an agency and then complete a year of service before receiving general certification from the state, which allows mobility between agencies.

Chief Brockenbach read certification language prepared by the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and identified awardees by name. Two officers were recognized as having met the state’s certification requirements. In addition, the chief announced internal promotions: Joseph “JT” Ward was named sergeant of the criminal and narcotics investigation division; Adam Gore was named lieutenant of the patrol/control division; and Scott Moody (identified as lieutenant of criminal and narcotics investigation in the transcript) and others were noted in the department’s recent promotional movement. The chief described the department’s career development plan and said promotions were awarded following assessment panels that included public participants.

Ending: The council received the certifications and promotion announcements as informational items; no formal council vote was recorded in the transcript excerpt on the personnel promotions.