Mayor Manheimer on New Police Chief
ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Mayor Esther Manheimer speaks with News 13's Evan Donovan in the Buncombe County Courthouse about Monday's meet-and-greet event, where the public can meet the four finalists for Asheville's new chief of police. Stay tuned to WLOS for more coverage of the event on the 10 and 11pm news Monday night. The biographies for the four finalists for police chief provided by the city are below. Robert Buckman: Chief Deputy of the Loudoun County, Va., Sheriff Office Operations Bureau, Lt. Colonel Buckman has been with the department 33 years. He leads 400 people in the Operations Bureau, including 360 sworn deputies in the Special Operations and Criminal Investigations divisions. He managed programs for the Adult Detention Center for 15 years. He provided leadership as the department transitioned from a centralized policing model to a decentralized problem-solving policing philosophy, which involved extensive training of sworn and civilian staff. Emphasis was placed on building community partnerships with schools, neighborhoods and religious and cultural organizations. Tammy Hooper: Deputy Chief of Police for the City of Alexandria, Va., since 2014, Hooper has held a variety of positions with the department, starting as a patrol officer in 1989. She's supervised a patrol squad as sergeant and served as commander of the Vice Narcotics Division. She oversaw the department's Community Support Section where she executed the Alexandria Police Department's Community Policing Plan. Hooper became the first woman to serve in the rank of captain at the department. In 2007, she became commander of Internal Investigations. As a Support Services Division commander, she has had oversight in property and evidence, emergency communications and planning and accreditation. Steve Sharron: Assistant Chief with the Tyler, Texas Police Department, Sharron has 28 years of law enforcement experience, 22 of them in supervisory and command level positions. Sharron's experience extends to repairing relations with minority communities. In his current role, he supervises all investigative units, dispatch operations, property and evidence, fleet and building maintenance and the community response unit. This includes the community policing units. He has hands-on experience partnering with community groups to understand issues and help solve neighborhood problems. He has been the Assistant Chief of Police since 2001. Wade Wood: Asheville's current Deputy Chief of Police held the position of Interim Chief of Police from 2011-2012. Wood has been with the Asheville Police Department since 1992. He was assigned as Assistant to the Chief/Administration from 2012-2013. Wood has been captain of the Criminal Investigative Division and the Administrative Division. Early in his career, he served as a community police officer. He's been a Central and North District commander. He served on multiple community/city committees, including the Juvenile Crime Prevention Coalition, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN). Meet the Candidates The public will have an opportunity to meet the finalists during a drop-in event from 5-6 p.m., Monday, May 18 at the Wilma Sherrill Center on the UNC-Asheville campus. At 6 p.m., following the meet and greet, candidates will make presentations on a pre-determined subject. Community members will have the opportunity to offer feedback on candidates through comment cards. The feedback will be considered in the selection process. The public is invited and encouraged to attend both events. Child care will be available onsite for children kindergarten age and older. The City selected Affion Public to provide consulting services for the Chie _______________ Follow WLOS on social media: WLOS ABC 13 News on Facebook: / news13 WLOS ABC 13 News on Twitter: / wlos_13 WLOS ABC 13 News on Instagram: / wlos_13 Subscribe to WLOS on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABC13Cha... Listen to AnchorMOMS, the Podcast: https://wlos.com/news/anchormoms/anch... Watch more top local news stories: • Western Loses At ETSU, Highlights and more For all of the day’s top local and national news, visit http://www.wlos.com Watch our live newscasts and other live video at https://wlos.com/watch Have a news tip? Send it directly to us: Email us: [email protected] Call the Newsroom: 828.684.1340 WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
