Mitch Cunningham

Chief Law Enforcement Advisor - National Sheriffs' Association

Deputy Chief Mitch Cunningham (ret.) has been a police officer for 40 years, most recently as Deputy Chief for the Wilmington North Carolina Police Department, retiring in 2019 and remaining as an auxiliary officer. Prior to that he was a police officer for the Montgomery County Department of Police, in Maryland, from 1985-2012. There he started a number of crime fighting initiatives including the first Career Criminal Unit, the first regional auto theft team and started the regional data sharing system NCR LInX, in the National Capitol Region which connects hundreds of police agencies, leading to countless arrests and supporting anti-terrorism efforts in the wake of 9-11. After being selected as Deputy Chief for the Wilmington (North Carolina) Police Department in 2012, he launched a number of successful efforts to drive down gang violence plaguing the city. He also started the agency’s first Peer Support team, created a college scholarship fundraiser -Send a Cop to College- to assist with the professionalization of its future leaders and initiated a number of leadership, crimefighting and morale building efforts. Wilmington North Carolina was designated as the city with the worst opioid crisis so he implemented a number of initiatives to address this including being the second program in North Carolina that outfitted WPD officers with naloxone. He also began the LEAD program, a pre-arrest diversion program that brought public safety and public health officials to work together to reduce the impacts of opioids. He also was a founder of the Quick Response Team that ensured those who overdosed received care within 72 hours. He was selected to serve on the NC Attorney General’s Task Force on Opioids. He is a certified training instructor who worked as a law enforcement training coordinator for Cape Fear Community College as well as teaching for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Louisiana State University. He is currently the Chief Law Enforcement Advisor for the National Sheriffs’ Association. In this role he provides technical support for clients all around the country on a variety of topics and needs. He also serves as an advisory board member for PTACC, a police and treatment community consortium as well as written articles and reported on innovations in law enforcement which assist in successful opioid response strategies. He also is a accreditation SME for IADLEST, the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training. He was previously a member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the National Capitol Region and is currently the Vice Chairman of the Board for Soaring as Eagles a community outreach non-profit serving families of Title 1 schools. He is also a founding member of the Carolina Beach Police Foundation and serves as a board member.

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