Tagged: CMPD

A Charlotte church invited folks to exchange their guns for gifts over the weekend. The New Life Fellowship Center has been doing that around the holidays for the past six years. This year, the pastor says some of the people turning in their guns had the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut on their minds.

John Kee has been the pastor at New Life Fellowship Center for more than 17 years. He says during his time as pastor of the Double Oaks community, he's learned a lot. Especially about violence in his community.

If you’ve attended a Carolina Panthers game or run in an uptown 5K recently, there’s a good chance images of you were captured by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police cameras and stored on department servers.

After beefing up their camera network in advance of September’s Democratic National Convention, police now have access to more than 500 surveillance cameras perched on traffic lights, mounted on buildings and focused on sensitive areas across the city.

The DNC has been a test of the Charlotte police department's abilities. But it's also been a lucrative opportunity to score some expensive equipment that will stick around long after the delegates and protesters are gone.

There's all kind of debate about whether the DNC be any real boost to Charlotte's image or economy after it ends.

But one DNC benefit that's here to stay was on display earlier this week when a large group of protesters blocked an intersection.  Police used the department's brand new portable PA system to communicate with the crowd.