News Flash

Assistant City Manager Patrice Toney has announced the four finalists for the city’s next police chief – Assistant Police Chief Jose “Manny” Gomez; Assistant Police Chief William Penn, Jr.; Assistant Police Chief Wilson S. Weaver II; all of the Winston-Salem Police Department, and Police Chief Scott C. Booth of the Danville Police Department.

Citizens can meet the candidates at a public forum on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Salem Lake Marina at 815 Salem Lake Road, where the candidates will be questioned by a community panel. A decision is expected by the end of January.

Gomez currently leads the Criminal Intelligence Bureau, which houses the special investigations division, the firearms investigation and intelligence division and the Real Time Crime Center. He joined the Winston-Salem Police Department in 1999, and has served in the Field Services Bureau and the Special Operations Division. He has also served with the street crimes unit and the SWAT Team. 

Penn currently commands the Investigative Services Bureau and has served as District 1 commander, support services commander and has worked with the foot patrol, vice and narcotics and crime prevention divisions. He has served with the police department for 25 years.

Weaver currently leads the Field Services Bureau. He specializes in the response, mitigation and resolution of high-risk incidents. He has served as lead instructor for anti-terrorism/homeland defense and in special operations, professional standards and the patrol division. He has been with the department for 38 years.

Booth has served as chief of police in Danville, Va., since 2018, where he has worked to reduce violent crime. He spent nearly 20 years with the Richmond Police Department, where he worked as both a patrol and undercover officer, and a detective in the vice/narcotics unit. He has also served as chief of police with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in Washington D.C. and was the deputy federal security director for the Charlotte region of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.