Gene Sapino, who has more than 25 years of law enforcement and leadership experience, has been named the chief of police and director of campus safety for Guilford Technical Community College, the fourth largest of 58 institutions in the North Carolina Community College System. GTCC serves nearly 28,000 students annually from five campuses and a Small Business Center.

Sapino will oversee a full-service police department with 28 employees and manage a $2.7 million budget. In his new role, Sapino will organize, direct, and supervise the day-to-day activities of the ongoing comprehensive campus police and public safety programs at GTCC’s main campus and four satellite campuses.

“I am honored to be selected as the chief of police for GTCC,” Sapino said. “I look forward to working with the students, the faculty and staff to ensure campus safety. The GTCC Campus Police Department will strive to demonstrate the values of collaboration, accessibility, excellence, integrity, and inclusion. The department will also work diligently to foster relationships and garner community legitimacy.”

“We are looking forward to working with Chief Sapino and helping him implement his vision of excellence for the GTCC Campus Police Department,” said Mitchell Johnson, GTCC vice president of operations and facilities. “He is fortunate to have a great team of officers to lead, and with his energy and leadership I believe we will have a campus police that meets and exceeds the expectations of students, faculty and staff.”

Sapino most recently was the assistant chief of police for the Delray Beach Police Department in Florida where 166 sworn officers and 72 non-sworn civilians were under his oversight and direction. He also assisted in the preparation, distribution and monitoring of the department’s annual operations budget of $26 million.

He served with the Delray Beach Police Department since he was hired as a patrolman in 1995 and worked his way up through the department, most recently being named assistant chief in April 2019.

Sapino has a Bachelor of Science in childhood education from Georgia Southern University and is currently working on a graduate degree from the University of Virginia.

He completed the 279th session of the FBI National Academy in 2020 and attended the Senior Management Institute for Police Executive Research Forum in Boston in conjunction with Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2018.

Congratulations!