Dayton Loses Its Police Chief!

Dayton Police loses their chief to the Dayton of the South, Greensboro.

The police chief who was asleep at the wheel decides to return back to the South.

Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal has announced he is resigning and will take up the job for the police chief in the Dayton of the South, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Greensboro has a population of 325,000 residents and a city radius of 155 square miles.

The city is growing where as Dayton continues its downfall.

Dayton mayot Shenise Sloss-Turner, city manager Shelley Dickinson and city officials were notified of the resignation.

Now the city has to look for a replacement who is willing to deal with a city plagued by gun violence, graffiti, endless theft and a declining population.

Greensboro chief John Thompson announced his retirement in 2025 and the city actively searched for a replacement. Afzal who was then police chief of Hopewell, Virginia before being hired to Dayton in 2021. 

Hopewell is about 165 miles from Greensboro. 

What's a progressive mayor to do?

His departure will be not be missed. I barely saw the police chief. He will be finishing up his tenure around his five year anniversary. He will have protesters on his ass about the police shooting of Regnald Thomas. He was 44 years old.

The shooting will be investigated separately by Dayton and Montgomery County law enforcement. A local group that advocates against police violence has spoken out, saying they are "enraged."

At a news conference where body cam footage was also played, Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said the officer was on a routine patrol and stopped Thomas on his bike around 9:30 p.m. This was around North St. Clair and East Third streets.

The body cam recording shows the officer telling the man he was stopped because he didn't have a light on his bike and was riding on the sidewalk. Thomas said he was on the sidewalk because there wasn't a bike lane, and that he had a reflector on his bike.

Thomas tells the officer he wasn't armed. The officer asks to pat him down. Thomas then starts running away.

Ohio law allows people to carry a concealed weapon but also requires people to tell police that when asked.

Afzal said Thomas took out his gun when being chased.

The police officer and Thomas struggled multiple times throughout the encounter.

During a struggle, Afzal said Thomas seems to go toward the dropped handgun. The officer fired one shot. Thomas was taken to a hospital and died from his injuries.

Afzal played body cam footage and showed still images from the encounter, but didn’t play the actual shooting.

"I'm not going to show the actual shooting on that. There's enough trauma that occurs in our community and we are not going contribute to that. This is a traumatic situation as it is for everybody involved, including our officers," he said.

Afzal's hiring did put controversy on Greensboro city leaders. They passed on a seasoned veteran of the Greensboro Police. They allegedly did a smoke and mirrors. The public had input on who to choose. They wanted a local official to be police chief. The city went to Dayton and plucked its chief.

The assistant police chief Stephanie Mardis was rejected for the role. She is an African American police official. 

From Durango, Colorado to Hopewell, Virginia to Dayton, Ohio now Greensboro, Kamran Afzal will have either a short stay or a long stay.