New Village Police Chief Focuses on Visibility
New Pinehurst Police Chief Earl Phipps greets Dick Bisbe during his first day on bike patrol in downtown. Photo by Hannah Sharpe
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Earl Phipps was well on his way to a career in music when a ride in a police car changed his tune.
In 1989, Phipps was a music major at East Carolina University, eyeing a career as a band teacher, when he participated in a ride-along with the Greenville Police Department.
“Thirty minutes into the car ride got me hooked,” said Phipps, the newly hired Pinehurst police chief.
Recounting the incident that “hooked” him on police work, Phipps recalled responding to a domestic violence call.
“This guy was assaulting this girl not 30 feet in front on me,” he said. “The officer runs over. The guy takes off, jumps over a fence. The officer goes after him, tackles him and then handcuffs him.”
The officer placed the suspect in the car and then cared for the woman until the rescue squad got there, Phipps said.
“I said, ‘That’s me. That is what I do,’” he said. “I’d never thought about it before, but that’s what I wanted to do, and I knew it instantly.”
He went back to ECU and told his trumpet instructor he was leaving the school of music to enroll in the criminal justice program.
“To this day, I still love law enforcement like I did that first day,” he said. “It still matters to me. I still give everything I have every day as a law-enforcement officer to make it a little better, a little safer, and it still feels brand new to me.”
Phipps has been on the job since Dec. 1 and is bringing plenty of enthusiasm and new initiatives to the department.
“I’ve only been here a couple of months, but I have a lot of ideas,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting to them one at a time.”
One of the first new things Phipps implemented was a department leadership group made up of officers and civilian staff. The group is charged with examining all aspects of the department and determining what changes are needed.
One of the issues discussed by the leadership team is the development of a bike patrol throughout the village.
Phipps said the bike patrol would be perfect for the village because it would allow for better interaction between residents and the police officers.
“It slows us down, gets us more in touch and in tune with the community,” he said.
Phipps, an International Police Mountain Bike Association certified cyclist, said he has asked his officers to create a patrol plan that integrates the bikes with other patrol vehicles.
Phipps hopes the bike patrols will start in March after officers receive sufficient training.
“You need to know patrol techniques,” he said. “You need to know pace techniques, how to negotiate obstacles, panic brakings, high-speed dismounts — things that you just don’t learn as a kid riding a bike.”
Auxiliary officers will also be trained on the bikes.
The department has one bike now and expects to get four or five more in the coming months. For now, Phipps takes every opportunity he can to ride the police bike around town, meeting residents and listening to their comments.
“I want to be that chief you see on duty and off duty,” he said.
Improve Perception
The department is developing its inaugural citizen’s police academy. Phipps is hopeful the eight-week academy will start in April, meeting for two to three hours once a week.
The goal of the program is is to develop a volunteer program that can help both inside and outside the department walls.
“We want to involve some of the folks here and have them plugged in and helping out,” Phipps said.
The department is also developing its own Facebook page, as well as and trying to do other things that help improve relationships with the community and businessss owners, and improve public perceptions of the department.
“I want our community to know our officers on a first name basis,” he said. “I think we are small enough to do that. We have an amazing staff of officers here, and I think it is good for our citizens to know who they are.”
In recent years, some residents, business owners and visitors have complained about the department and its aggressive enforcement of traffic laws, including stops for suspected driving while impaired.
Phipps is very aware of the perception. He keeps on his desk a collection of published information — including newspaper articles — that detail perceived problems and other negative views of the department. The articles were given to him by a local resident.
“I’m personally hanging on to them, because I don’t want to ever forget our community and our perception,” he said. “They are a daily reminder here on my desk that we are only as good as the community sees us. We can be perfect at the job we do every day, and we can do really good things, but we are only as good as the community perceives us to be. It’s important for us to never lose that.”
‘Next Level’
Before coming to Pinehurst, Phipps spent his entire 22-year law-enforcement career with the Greenville Police Department.
During his tenure there he served in a variety of roles, including as a bike patrol officer, a canine officer, tactical patrol member and an emergency response team member.
He came to Pinehurst with a lengthy history of community-oriented policing and volunteer work in Greenville, including serving as commander of the code enforcement division, which which is a team of professionals assigned to address neighborhood concerns from both an advocacy and enforcement point of view.
The division handles a variety of neighborhood concerns, such as minimum housing code violations, abandoned structures, weeded lots, abandoned and junk vehicles and other public nuisances within the city.
Phipps, 44, is a married father of two daughters and a son. His elder daughter is in college. His younger daughter is a high school junior, and his son is in eighth grade.
His family is still living in Greenville. He is staying in Tramway with relatives until his family can relocate to the area this summer.
Phipps is the seventh police chief in Pinehurst. He succeeded Ronnie Davis, 57, who retired Dec. 1.
The department currently has a staff of 27, not including the chief.
Phipps, who still enjoys writing music and playing a variety of instruments, said he feels like he is at home in Pinehurst. He said he enjoys the neighborly feel of the downtown, not to mention the food at all the great restaurants in town. He also enjoys playing tennis, and “hacking” it around the golf course.
But much of his time remains focused on the department.
“Right now I’m focused on moving us forward as a professional agency,” he said. “I want to develop our officers to move into that next level. I want our officers to think like supervisors, and our first-line supervisors to be thinking like command staff, and I want our command staff to be ready to sit in that chair (pointing to his chair).”
“My goal is to pour into my people, listen to the community and come in every day and keep it as safe and close and personable as we can,” he said. “I look forward to the relationships we are going to build.”
Contact Tom Embrey at tembrey@thepilot.com.
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Comments
blessherheart 3 months, 1 week ago
Welcome Chief Phipps! It sounds like you are off to a good start!
keke 3 months, 1 week ago
I hope he can change some Pinehurst officer's attitude problems. (That was MY perception.) He seems like a really nice guy.
BethDiaddorio 3 months, 1 week ago
As a current Greenville resident and volunteer for Lt. Phipp's "Angel Cops" organization, I can assure the residents of Pinehurst that you are getting an outstanding new Police Chief. You couldn't have found a more capable, honest, hard-working man of integrity. We already miss you here but wish you and your family all the best in your new job!
Arestorer 3 months, 1 week ago
Good deal..I think the connection between the Department and the Residents was one of the exsisting problems. Best of luck !
coffecreme 3 months, 1 week ago
Glad they went to outside the department and county to hire a new Chief! Good luck Chief Phipps!
eflat7 3 months, 1 week ago
Sounds like a good guy. Hope he does well.
TooHot 3 months, 1 week ago
Ok - but visibility cause they're on bikes? Where? In the village? That place is dead. Never been a big smash and grab or a purse-snatching area. If you want to practice "visibility" chief, stop the hiding behind the billboard thing to pull over people solely to see if they're drunk. You need probable cause and always saying "you were weaving" doesn't cut it, cause both times it happened to me I wasn't weaving. In fact my kids were with me and I hadn't been drinking a thing.
invmc 3 months, 1 week ago
Reasonable suspicion is needed to conduct a traffic stop, not probable cause.
MikeNC 3 months, 1 week ago
BethDiaddorio 10 hours, 10 minutes ago As a current Greenville resident and volunteer for Lt. Phipp's "Angel Cops" organization, I can assure the residents of Pinehurst that you are getting an outstanding new Police Chief
Sounds good. Welcome aboard Chief....Mike
CNMT 3 months, 1 week ago
One wonders if the increase in "visibility" explains the patrol car parked on the side of 15/501 near the Entrance to Pinehurst # 6 at 4:30 this morning? I was just about the only car on the road at that hour and was a little surprised to see them sitting there in the dark with no lights on at all. Sure glad and thankful I wasn't stopped to see what I was doing out at that hour....I was headed to work and had a uniform on so hopefully that would have worked!
rightwingpatriot 3 months, 1 week ago
hope hes not a prick like the rest of pinehurst PD
JER 3 months, 1 week ago
rightwingpatriot: And I bet he hopes you stop being one long enough to see what kind of a job he can do.
Toda 3 months, 1 week ago
Kudos for getting out and meeting the people he works for in his new role as police chief. But shouldn't he be wearing a traffic vest so drivers leaving bars and taverns can see him? Hopefully he can be an inspiration to some of his staff, and inspire relaxation techniques or provide stress balls. Maybe then fewer citations will be written for petty offenses. Just my opinion....
Thatcher 3 months, 1 week ago
This is a great story! Welcome Chief! And JER, I see you're still using your classic one-liners! Love it!
alladat1 3 months, 1 week ago
Hey Toda - Just couldn't stop after your first sentence , could you. You need therapy.
difflook 3 months, 1 week ago
Great Job to tne New Chief and the writer! Maybe though the Chief's leadership he can get other Moore County Chief s involved into community policing and being on bikes so the officers can become better acquainted with the people they serve! Postive Chief!!
clbvpm 3 months, 1 week ago
TooHot- ." If you want to practice "visibility" chief, stop the hiding behind the billboard thing to pull over people solely to see if they're drunk."
There is an ordinance against billboards in Pinehurst... And, weaving is an excellent reason for pulling a car over to check to see if the driver is intoxicated It happened to me once after a couple of sneezes. I had nothing to hide, and of course, the tests showed that.
Congratulations, Chief. It sounds like you are off to a good start. Welcome to our area.
FightFireWithFire 3 months, 1 week ago
It's seems like there are more and more "cop haters" moving to this area. If you hate cops, it's more than likely because you like breaking the law more than you like following it. You hate cops because they represent law and order, which is something you probably need more of in your lives to begin with. Stop being a bunch of sniveling miserable jerks and start acting like adults.