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Less than two months into his tenure as Greensboro’s police chief, Kamran Afzal says he is not interested in arriving with all the answers.
Instead, the longtime law enforcement leader said effective policing begins with listening, challenging assumptions, and working with residents to solve problems that cannot be addressed by police alone.
“It would be short-sighted for me to think that one person’s perspective is the whole city’s perspective,” Afzal said during a recent interview with the Carolina Peacemaker. “That might be that individual’s perspective, that community’s perspective, and that’s a valid perspective.”
Afzal, who came to Greensboro after serving as police chief in Dayton, Ohio, said his decision to pursue the city’s top law enforcement job was shaped by a desire to continue challenging himself while helping build the next generation of leadership. After three years in Dayton, he said he believed the department was ready for an internal successor and that it was time for him to pursue another opportunity.
His path to policing, however, was not one he originally planned.
Afzal came to the United States from Pakistan at age 15 and settled in Northern Virginia, where his uncle had already established roots. Married for more than 31 years and the father of two children, Afzal said he expected to work in banking after college but could not find a job in the field.
A newspaper advertisement for a police officer caught his attention because it said, “no experience necessary.” Although he was not hired the first time he applied, he later entered law enforcement, beginning a nearly 35-year career that included service with the U.S. Capitol Police, the Arlington County Police Department and later the police chief’s office in Dayton.
Afzal said becoming a police chief was not even among his “wildest dreams” until he was years into his career as a captain. Even after retiring from Arlington, he said he had no desire to leave the profession. Instead, he said his continued drive in law enforcement comes from a desire to challenge himself while improving conditions for officers and the quality-of-service residents receive.
“My perspective is, what can I do to improve the lives of people that actually work for the department, and then also, what can I do to improve the service aspect for the community that I’m serving, so we can do a better job for them?” he said.
In Greensboro, Afzal said he is still learning the city’s history, neighborhoods and concerns. But he said he came to the position with an appreciation for Greensboro’s civil rights legacy and the role the city played in expanding opportunities for people like him.
“What I knew about Greensboro is that if it wasn’t for a lot of folks in Greensboro back in the 1950s and ‘60s, people like me would probably not be in the positions that we are in,” he said.
For Afzal, a Muslim immigrant, that history is not abstract. It is connected to his own ability to lead a major police department in a Southern city known for its role in the Civil Rights Movement.
“That history is important to me, and I do appreciate it,” Afzal said.
Afzal describes his leadership style as one rooted in accountability, learning and problem-solving. He maintains that he routinely challenges assumptions, both inside and outside the department. Internally, Afzal said he expects officers and supervisors to bring solutions, not just complaints. Rather than directing every decision himself, he said he wants to empower employees who can understand local challenges better than he does.
“I don’t care for excuses,” he said. “Tell me what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.”
Afzal said that approach was shaped by mentors early in his career who pushed him to think critically. Those lessons, Afzal said, now shape how he wants to lead the Greensboro’s Police Department.
Since taking office, Afzal has participated in a series of community meetings across the city and has attended gatherings that were already taking place in neighborhoods. He said those conversations have shown him that Greensboro residents are active, engaged and willing to question their government.
He shared that many of the questions have centered on youth engagement, police-community relationships, accountability and transparency. Rather than describing those relationships as broken, Afzal said he believes Greensboro has a foundation that previous chiefs helped build.
“I’m not sure that needs to be rebuilt,” he said. “It just needs to be continued.”
Afzal said one idea he is developing through the City of Greensboro’s Vision 36 initiative would connect young people facing barriers with community members who can offer mentorship, guidance and lessons from their own lived experiences. He said the goal is to make youth support a broader community responsibility, not solely a police initiative.
“How do we bring the youth along? It’s not a police thing. It’s a community thing,” Afzal said.
Afzal said one of the challenges in strengthening police-community trust is balancing different expectations from residents. In some neighborhoods, people want quicker response times and more visible patrols. In others, residents have raised concerns about feeling over-policed.
“Our work is reactive,” Afzal said. “It’s really not proactive. Our proactive work is based on the calls that we get.”
Afzal asserted that officers are deployed where data show crime, victimization or traffic crashes are occurring. He also said he would like to see more approachable forms of police presence, such as walking or bicycle patrols, but staffing shortages affect what the department can provide.
Calls from some community advocates to end regulatory traffic stops have also surfaced during Afzal’s early conversations with residents. Afzal said he does not believe an unelected police chief has the authority to simply stop enforcing laws passed by elected officials.
“You’re asking a non-elected person to say that we will not enforce certain laws,” he said. “I have a fundamental issue with that.”
Instead, he said, police leaders can determine where enforcement efforts are focused. Traffic enforcement, he said, should be aimed at improving safety and reducing crashes, while recognizing that traffic stops can sometimes help identify people connected to more serious crimes.
“I can’t even bring myself to say we will not enforce these laws,” Afzal said. “That’s not my role.”
Still, Afzal said he wants the department’s practices to be examined objectively. The department is partnering with researchers at North Carolina A&T State University to review traffic stop data, racial disparities, crash patterns and victimization trends to determine whether enforcement strategies align with public safety needs.
“I want to have somebody who’s independent,” he said, acknowledging that after nearly 35 years in law enforcement, his own perspective carries biases.
Afzal said he recognizes that unjust actions by police officers have occurred across the country and cannot be dismissed. But he said those incidents do not represent the majority of officers. In Greensboro, he said officers responded to roughly 180,000 calls for service last year and used force 232 times, about 0.3 percent of calls.
“That doesn’t mean that every use of force we justify,” he said. “There are some uses of force that wasn’t justified... we take action against those.”
Although North Carolina law limits the release of body camera footage because a judge must authorize disclosure, however, in critical incidents such as officer-involved shootings, Afzal said his intent would be to seek permission to release footage whenever legally possible.
Training, Afzal said, is another major part of modern policing. He added that police academies today go far beyond teaching recruits how to enforce laws or use firearms. When he entered the profession, his academy lasted about 16 weeks. Today, he said, basic academy training is closer to 30 weeks.
“Training is a lot more encompassing now than it used to be,” Afzal said. “What we have added more is not just the fact that these are the laws. It’s the psychology of the trauma that people endure.”
Recruits now learn why some victims may hesitate to report crimes or cooperate with investigators, and how trauma can affect a person’s behavior. Afzal pointed to city and county collaborations like Greensboro’s Family Justice Center, where police officers and social workers work together with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes.
Afzal said cultural competency is also critical in a city with residents from different racial, ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. He said understanding those differences can be just as important as tactical training.
On crime reduction, Afzal said Greensboro already has strong systems in place, including intelligence-led investigations, the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit and partnerships with federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He credited those efforts with helping the department maintain a 100 percent homicide clearance rate so far this year.
Recruitment and retention remain challenges, as they do for police departments across the country. Afzal said Greensboro must show the service-oriented work officers perform every day but also be honest about the realities of the profession.
He said officers must embrace what he called a “guardian mindset,” serving residents with compassion during routine calls while being prepared to respond when lives are in danger.
“You have to protect the community,” he said. “But then when harm is being done, you have to raise your level up to meet the threat that someone is posing to a member of our community and be ready for that.”
Asked how he hopes Greensboro residents will remember his tenure, Afzal said his goal is to leave the department stronger than he found it and prepare future leaders to continue the work.
“Hopefully, at the basic level, that I moved the needle forward for the department,” he said.
Afzal said his faith remains central to how he measures his work and his life. More than professional recognition, he said, he wants to know that he used his time to serve others and make a difference.
“When my time ends on this Earth, can I go in front of my Maker,” Afzal said, “and show my Maker that when He created me, that I did justice and I was able to make a difference on this Earth?”
