GREENSBORO, N.C. — There's a new top cop in charge of the Greensboro Police Department.
Teresa Biffle is wrapping up her second full day as interim police chief, following the departure of former Greensboro Police Chief Brian James.
Biffle is no stranger to the Greensboro Police Department. She has 27 years of experience with the department and she said she's honored to take on this new role, but it doesn't come without its challenges.
"I think the community as a whole is concerned with violent crime," Biffle said. "There's a national trend that there's more violent crime, there's more gun violence, and that's a national trend. Now we're dealing with the days of 3D printers, ghost guns, and the ability to buy gun parts and build your own guns."
In order to combat that, Biffle said the community needs to work together.
"We're looking at focusing at what causes crime and it goes back to the same problems of housing, the poverty, the food deserts, and fixing the basic problems, providing the basic needs to the communities so that you can help build communities that don't have the violence."
Early Thursday morning the city saw its 17th homicide this year. Last year at this time, there were 19.
Biffle is hoping for more community involvement as a possible solution to get that number even lower.
"We're on the cusp of a lot of great things moving forward, really being in the forefront of exceptional policing for this area," Biffle said.
Biffle said she does not plan on staying in this role long-term because she said she's getting closer to retirement.
She said the city of Greensboro will use a third-party firm to help find a new police chief, but until then Biffle will lead the department as interim.