Greensboro North Carolina Police Agency Turns to Neb. City for Solutions after Violent Crime Spike

GREENSBORO, NC — Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson said Friday his department will use a model proven successful by police in Omaha, Nebraska for wedding community organizations and police as a unit to fight violent crime.

Thompson and Assistant Chief M.J. Harris returned Thursday from several days in Omaha where they studied the successful 18-year-old program dubbed Omaha 360.

The chiefs held a Friday afternoon news conference to discuss the Nebraska model and recap what they learned during local community forums on violent crime the GPD hosted citywide over the past two months.

Gate City residents and police alike were rattled by a “spike in violence’’ at the first the year when the GPD saw 6 homicides within the first two weeks of 2025, Thompson said.

He responded by organizing the town hall-style get togethers.

Thompson’s primary takeaway from the half-dozen meetings: “I was kind of surprised ... because often in those meetings, we show up as a police department and folks are looking to blame,’’ Thompson said. “(They’re) looking for who’s at fault for this? Who’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing? Why isn’t the police department addressing this in a different manner? And honestly, I really didn’t get any of that from any of the meetings I attended.’’

Instead, “what we overwhelmingly saw was ... there were members of the community and organizations in our community ... coming to those meetings wanting to help the police department,’’ Thompson said.

“It was a very different tone than I expected’’ and afterward, Thompson said “I felt excited ... like this is a problem we need to solve together as a community and a police department and the community showed up asking: What can we do? How can we do it? What should we be doing? I think that sets the stage for what comes next for our community.’’

However, Thompson realized through the meetings that the GPD does not have a mechanism in place that helps community groups come together with police in the most productive way.

In Omaha, for example, the program is community-owned and community-driven, with police having a seat at the table of equal weight to the seats of private citizens or community organizations and government agencies like health departments.

“We have all the statistics, that piece of the puzzle,’’ Thompson said of the police role in such a group. “That’s what we bring to the table and we are there to help where we can.’’

Through the 360 program, the Omaha group meets weekly and hits crime stats head on, working with fresh data, seeing new trends.

Because Greensboro already has a Department of Community Safety, its staff would likely lead a local effort to create something like Omaha 360, said Harris.

The rate of homicides decreased in Greensboro in 2024 by 42% from the record-breaking 2023 when 74 people were killed.

So far, nine homicides have been reported in 2025 in the Gate City, the latest being a stabbing death on Thursday night on Ashe Street, according to police.

More than homicide rates, Thompson said he and his department have a keen eye on the rate of domestic violence in the community. Last year, violent crimes between family members increased by 40%, a shift Thompson characterized as dramatic.

He further said his officers will soon take part in special training to learn ways they can intervene during domestic crime calls to help reduce such incidents.

The chief said a recent study of violence among Greensboro’s youth showed that the city did not have a significant problem with violence by minor offenders.

Instead, data show that people between 18-25 are most likely to commit crimes in the city of about 302,000 where the bulk of crime takes place in the city’s southeastern region, Thompson said.

The department is studying ways to intervene in the lives of youths around age 13 or 14 to prevent kids from turning to crime, Thompson said. He cited a success from the Omaha 360 program — the creation of a summer jobs program for youth to counter youth violence problems. The move reportedly did a lot to stem crime, he said.

Happy to see the force nearly fully staffed at 651 by summer, Thompson said he will plan to add even more officers in the coming years as the city economy grows and more people move to the region.

“We’ve not been this close to a full staff in 10 years, but we are going to plan for our growth for the future,’’ he said, estimating the department will ultimately need about 720 officers.

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