The year was 2003 and the police officer, in his mid-20s and still relatively new to law enforcement, was about to make two choices that would define his life. He joined the Greensboro Police Department and he enrolled at Guilford College.
In hindsight, both are proving good career moves for John Thompson ’04. On Dec. 16, John was named the new chief of Greensboro’s police department. With about 780 sworn and non-sworn employees, the department is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency run by a Guilfordian.
“It’s an honor and privilege to lead this department,” John says. “I’m looking forward to working with our communities to make Greensboro and our neighborhoods safe.”
John previously served as Greensboro’s assistant chief of police. Another Guilfordian, Teresa Biffle ’03, had been serving as the city’s interim chief. Teresa is retiring at the end of the year.
After earning an associate’s degree at Randolph Community College (N.C.), John joined the Asheboro (N.C.) Police Department as an officer in 1998 and thought he was set for life. It wasn’t until he learned larger police departments like Charlotte required four-year degrees that he realized he might not be as set as he initially thought.
“Critical thinking and my writing skills ... are the two most essential skills that I mastered at Guilford I still use every day on the job. It’s nice to know my investment in Guilford College paid off.”
After joining the Greensboro police force, John enrolled as an adult student in Guilford’s Continuing Education program, where he juggled his work life with classwork. “It was nice being in classes with more traditional students,” he says. “I think they learned a little from the perspective I brought and I certainly learned from them.”
John says the focus by Guilford’s Criminal Justice program on community justice policies, which seeks out community participation in crime prevention, sets the College apart from other higher education programs.
“Community justice is definitely a trend in law enforcement these days,” he says. “It’s more about justice and law enforcement and not the mechanics of law and incarceration.”
John says the community will play a vital role in achieving public safety for all Greensboro residents. Assistant City Manager Nathanael Davis said in a news release last week that the community will appreciate John’s people-centered approach to law enforcement.
"His leadership qualities align with many of the traits the community shared in public forums,” he says. “Chief Thompson will serve the City with distinction, while positioning (the department) as a national model in policing.”
John, who has worked in various roles in Greensboro’s police department, plans to continue to prioritize innovation, research, and evaluation in his role as police chief.
He is involved in several professional organizations, such as the N.C. Police Executives Association, Internal Association of Chiefs of Police, Police Executive Research Forum, and American Society of Evidence Based Policing.
John earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Policy Studies Administration from Guilford and a Master’s in Business Administration from Pfeiffer University. He is also a 2016 graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police and the Southern Police Institute Administrative Officers program at the University of Louisville in 2013.
But it was his time at Guilford, John says, that prepared him to lead Greensboro’s police department. “Critical thinking and my writing skills — I wrote so many papers at Guilford — are the two most essential skills that I mastered at Guilford I still use every day on the job,” he says. “It’s nice to know my investment in Guilford College paid off.”