In early February, WHQR got a question about the apparently ongoing law enforcement training that occurs during classes, mainly on North Campus in the NE building.
This person asked to remain anonymous, joining a long list of people associated with the college who do not want to give their name to WHQR for fear of retaliation.
This person said on February 10, a sign was posted on the door of one of the classrooms, reading: “Live Ammo Hazard: Simulation training only.” Several CFCC employees told WHQR that faculty and students never received any type of email notice that armed officers would be walking around the building. They also sometimes hear sounds of ‘training munitions,’ the ‘live ammo’ referenced on the sign, although it’s not clear what exact type of ammunition is being used (generally speaking, training ammunition can include blanks, ‘marking’ rounds that show where they’ve impacted, or other non-lethal types).
WHQR put in a records request for an email notifying people about the training — the college didn’t produce one.
WHQR reached out to CFCC to answer questions about the training, but CFCC declined to address concerns, including that the training occurs while classes, including those for high school students, are in session. CFCC consistently has high school students who take courses on campus through the state-sponsored Career and College Promise program.
On February 11, CFCC spokesperson Christina Hallingse did write that, “Cape Fear Community College provides more than 200 law enforcement and security-related training courses each year. Each course operates under its own contract, and in many cases, there is also a separate contract for each instructor associated with the course.”
This was a response to a public records request for those contracts that would have been subject, according to Hallingse, to a special service charge because “locating and preparing these records would require approximately one week of staff time. In accordance with North Carolina public records guidelines and college policy, this would qualify as an Extraordinary Record Request and would be subject to our Special Service Charge to recover the actual cost of extensive staff time required.”
CFCC has, on several occasions, indicated it would charge WHQR for records delivered in response to PRRs.
The North Carolina Open Government Guide from the state Attorney General's office outlines that “under most circumstances, fees may not include the labor costs of the agency employees who make the copies” and “cannot be charged to recover fees for time spent examining or removing confidential information from records.”
However, Hallingse did send an Excel spreadsheet listing 87 different law enforcement agencies that have trained on campus since July 2025. Of those, 7 are out of state. According to Hallingse, training fees are waived for all agencies through the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS).
Anita Baggie, spokesperson for New Hanover County Schools, wrote in an email on February 25, “Regarding CFCC, we have not had any parents reach out to us about the law enforcement training activities taking place there.”
