Chapel Hill explores providing police services to Carrboro, officials say

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — Chapel Hill officials announced Wednesday that the town of Carrboro earlier this year requested that Chapel Hill leaders explore providing police services for Carrboro.

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Carrboro borders the entire west side of Chapel Hill.

“Earlier this year, Carrboro leadership asked us to look into the feasibility of the Chapel Hill Police Department expanding its services to the residents of Carrboro,” said Chapel Hill Town Manager Ted Voorhees.

Carrboro has a population of around 21,000, while Chapel Hill has an overall population of about 63,000, which includes about 32,500 University of North Carolina students.

Carrboro reports that its police department has 43 employees, including 39 full-time, sworn law enforcement officers. UNC-Chapel Hill also provides a police service for the campus.

In Wednesday’s news release, Chapel Hill officials said Carrboro police employees could be “phased” into the Chapel Hill Police Department.

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Chapel Hill officials said the police services provided would include:

• patrol
• investigations
• crisis response

“The Town of Carrboro would pay the Town of Chapel Hill for providing these services,” the Chapel Hill news release said.

Voorhees said that Chapel Hill officials will be discussing the idea in the coming weeks.

Any formal plans would need approval from both Carrboro and Chapel Hill town councils, according to the news release.

“While conversations about this possibility are ongoing, I want Chapel Hill residents to know that nothing about the community-based policing we provide to the town would change,” Chapel Hill Police Chief Celisa Lehew said in the release. “We would continue to deploy officers based on community needs, responding with the right personnel and the appropriate resources.”

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