Chief Camacho to focus on reducing gun violence, strengthening community relationship

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Ron Camacho has been leading the North Charleston Police Department for about two weeks now and said tackling gun violence remains at the top of his to-do list.

While he said the agency has had some recent success in bringing violent crime numbers down, he believes that gun violence remains a priority.

“We were able to really pinpoint troubled areas and get officers into the troubled areas, and we’ve been very successful with decreasing crime in those areas,” he said. “Gun violence is still very high on that list, and how do we tackle that monster.”

He said the city is planning to add more security cameras in neighborhoods in the future to help them monitor and solve crimes.

Chief Camacho has spent nearly three decades in law enforcement.

“First 18 years was in a place called York, Pennsylvania, and then I went to Afghanistan as a police advisor.” He then went to Mexico, where he lived for about a year, and ran a state department training contract.

“We were training Mexican police officers,” he said. In July 2016, he accepted a police chief position in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Camacho plans to bring the tools he’s learned along the way to North Charleston.

“A couple of things that I’ve done already is just make some minor changes, and start changing a little culture where I really want to make sure that we concentrate on taking care of the troops.”

This summer, he plans to bring in a coaching company, called Performance Protocol, to give a demonstration on practices that will be implemented into the department.

He also wants to build a stronger bond between the police department and the community.

“I was just at a community meeting, and I was told, ‘Hey, we have some traffic issues there’ and I was able to get that to the chief of patrol; we just were there this weekend — 14 stops we made in that area and we picked up a gun.”

Chief Camacho is also adding an app that will allow the department to send information to residents and allow people to send in tips about crimes.