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The News & Record sat down this week with Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson to discuss his handling of the situation involving former police Chief David Wray and the Greensboro Police Department and to learn more about the way events unfolded, from locking Wray's office door on Jan. 6 to accepting his resignation on Jan. 9. These are excerpts from an hourlong interview:

Why did you change the locks to Wray's office on Friday, but not suspend or fire him then?

When the police chief came in to meet with me, I knew that there would be eyes all over this building and all around that would be watching for what happened. And I wanted Chief Wray to be able to come in here, meet with me ... and give him the opportunity to go home, to consider all of that information and then communicate with me in whatever way he thought was best.

If I had taken the action that afternoon to bring him in and put him on administrative leave, he would've had to walk into my office with a badge and a gun and walk out without his badge, and without his gun. We all know that would've become Page One news. That just wasn't fair to him.

At the same time, I was faced with the reality that at this point I had little or no trust in our relationship based on what the report had told me.

I realize it's a point of some criticism, and I realize that some people have said that I should have realized that the second I had the doors locked, that would have been news.

I guess if I was doing it all over again, maybe I would do it differently. But I'm not sure that I would do it a lot (differently) because I think the chief deserved the opportunity to still be a chief and make his decisions. But I think the process and the integrity of the process required at that point we secure the information.

When did you first start to suspect something was wrong in the department?

When I met with people inside the organization and outside the organization that started telling me things that caused me great concern in terms of some procedure and practice, and when black officers who I have a lot of respect for said that they had been, in their opinion, the subject of some of this targeting I began to have real concerns.

My confidence was just destroyed when I was told (during the investigation) that a black book was in fact found in the back of a car. And then at that point, I really put everything on hold and said, guys, you do your report and you do it thoroughly and you better document everything because I'm not assuming anything any more.

I think there was a lot of debate on the part of the team doing the report as to when I should take action. I think some people felt like I should take action immediately. And I told them I just flat wasn't going to do it. I had to have everything. I had to have it documented. I wasn't going to do it based on the fact that they had a bad interview or something was revealed in an interview that concerned them.

Are there plans to release those reports from the investigation?

I'm very concerned that the community have all the information that is needed for the community to have trust and faith in the organization and the police department. That being said, there are of course laws that strongly protect that information. And of course, City Council has authority to release what they deem to be appropriate as long as it's within the law. We have tried and I think it should be noted that we have released far more information in this process than is normally ever released.

What kind of impact does this event have on the city's image?

Well, I would be unconscious if I didn't think that these issues do not create concern. But I think if we fully consider all of the facts of this situation, there are some very, very uplifting elements to this story.

The vast majority of the people who are good men and women who work every day for the good of this community are the ones that said this isn't right and I'm willing to fall on my sword and go outside the thin blue line and try to stop it. That level of integrity that exists in those folks is the reason that I can feel like that we're in much better shape now than we've been ever in the past.

This was a situation where officers in that department came forward - black, white, all ranks, all sexes - and said, Mr. Manager, there are real problems and I beg you to seriously look into it.

What about the FBI's involvement?

I think they're absolutely doing what they ought to be doing, given the attention and nature of the concerns that have been expressed.

While I don't necessarily welcome it, I respect their role and welcome their review of our actions to date. It's just one more stop in the checks and balances. ... It may in fact provide some closure for the community that we have taken the right actions and we are moving forward and doing the right thing.

Is this a good thing for the community that the FBI is looking into your police department? And the answer to that is no, I'm not thrilled that we're at a point where the FBI feels a need to do that. But at the same time, I welcome their review because I feel very strongly that the actions that the organization has taken (and) I feel very strongly that the actions that (Interim) Chief (Tim) Bellamy is taking are addressing the concerns that are out there. And I hope that the FBI's work will give us some clear guidance on anything else we need to do or where we have missed it.

Contact Eric Swensen at 373-7351 or eswensen@news-record.com