The appointment of Wilmington’s first-ever Hispanic police chief is being hailed as a historic moment for both the city and the state of Delaware, with members of the Latino community saying the installation is long past due.
The city and its police department simultaneously announced Thursday morning that Capt. Wilfredo Campos had been chosen to lead the agency. Campos replaces Chief Robert Tracy, who was set to step down Friday.
Tracy is headed to Missouri after being selected as St. Louis’ next police commissioner.
In addition to naming Campos as chief, emailed news releases said he had appointed two new inspectors: department veterans Anthony Bowers and Matthew Hall.
BACKGROUND:Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy to step down in January for police role in St. Louis
Details on what will become of current inspectors Cecilia Ashe and Charles Emory Jr. were not publicly released or addressed.
A new era in police-community relations?
Campos, 50, is Wilmington’s 33rd police chief and the first Hispanic chief in the state. Raised on the city’s West Side, he graduated from Thomas McKean High School and Wilmington University, where he received his bachelor’s degree.
He has been with the department since graduating from the police academy in 1996, and in his new role, will earn $200,000 annually.
Local Hispanic leaders and community members said they were pleased with the appointment, with Wilmington Councilperson-At-Large Maria Cabrera calling it “outstanding.”
“This is huge and I am ecstatic,” Cabrera said. “Wilfredo is a good person, he gets along well with people and he’s fair. I think he’s going to get the respect from within that the chief should get.”
In his almost three decades with Wilmington Police, Campos has served in numerous capacities, including in the uniform patrol division, criminal investigation unit and human resources department.
As a detective, he was assigned to a Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force. He has also served with the U.S. Army Reserve.
Campos has long focused on community policing, Cabrera said. Given this, she’s hopeful he will renew the push for patrol officers to exit their police vehicles and walk around city neighborhoods as was commonplace under former Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings.
“Right now, the community doesn’t know who to trust,” Cabrera said. “But when people trust police officers and those relationships exist, you see more cooperation from the community and less fear.”
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Cabrera said rebuilding relationships takes time and it won’t occur overnight. She believes, however, that Campos can usher in a new era of resident-police relations.
Nancy Lopez, a Wilmington community member who has been working with the Delaware History Museum to detail the history of Latinos in The First State, echoed the councilwoman.
She said crime in the Hispanic community frequently goes unreported due to victims’ immigration status. Undocumented residents, she said, fear that interactions with police will lead to contact with immigration officials − something Lopez said is untrue.
She hopes that by having a Hispanic chief, some of those fears will be assuaged and that Campos will focus on connecting with the community to further dispel police distrust.
Lopez added that Campos is already well-known to many in the community.
TRACY’S LEGACY:After Wilmington council votes ‘no confidence’ in police chief, now what?
In addition to his decades on the police force, the chief serves as a board member of West Side Family Healthcare and Los Jardines Senior Housing.
Who are Wilmington’s new inspectors?
Wilmington’s newest inspectors are also longtime members of the department, with Hall joining the Wilmington Police Department in 1996 and Bowers in 1999.
Hall, who was promoted to captain in 2019, was previously the commanding officer of the department’s special operations unit. In addition to overseeing several other units, he helped coordinate with fellow law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Secret Service during the Democratic National Convention, election night and leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Bowers, who was promoted to captain in 2018, most recently served as the commanding officer of human resources. In that role, he oversaw the department’s recruitment efforts, including the push for more diversity in the agency.
He’s a recent graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police.
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