The Lowdown Archive

Recently, we launched a new custom smartphone application to enhance the connection between our office and Orange County residents and visitors. Our goal is to make it easier for users to learn about our work, request various services, and communicate with our staff.

TheSheriffApp.com, a brand of OCV, LLC., specializes in mobile app development for sheriffs’ offices and public safety organizations across the country. They worked with our communications staff to develop an app that provides quick access to items of public interest and is simple to use. In just a few clicks, users can find answers to frequently asked questions, learn about fingerprinting, express interest in employment, apply for many of the services we offer, submit a tip, commend or complain about an employee, learn about detention center policies, access our social media posts, and read our press releases.

According to OCV Partner and CRO Kevin Cummings, “Over 80 percent of people in the United States own and use smartphones as their primary means of communication. Mobile apps offer agencies a better way to alert, inform, and prepare the public. Apps allow public safety agencies the ability to reach and serve their citizens where they are: their smartphones.”

A notification bar sits at the top of the home page. This tool helps us push important information straight to subscribers’ mobile devices. In addition to automatic alerts from the National Weather Service, users receive our press releases, crime news, and traffic alerts. We believe community members will benefit from receiving important news in a timely manner directly on their phones, and when relevant, we will pair the written content with photos of, for example, road hazards and traffic conditions. The app also contains convenient, direct links to our social media pages.

The first two feature buttons in the app, the FAQ section and the Submit a Tip option, sit right under the notification bar. This placement is deliberate. We want users to find answers to common inquiries and efficiently report information about crime, traffic, illegal activity, or share concerns about the safety of our students and schools.

Many of the feature buttons on our old app merely directed users to the relevant section of our web page. Unfortunately, that page, currently undergoing revision, became rather text heavy over the years. Often a person would end up viewing a PDF, which can be cumbersome to navigate on a small screen. We wanted user-friendly content on our new app; most of it is native to the program and does not require routing people to the web to find what they need. We hope navigating the app is intuitive, with information organized into clear, concise, and understandable chunks. We also want people to locate information where they expect it might be, not only where we think it fits best. For example, although the app has a designated fingerprinting section on the home screen, we also included information about that service in the FAQ section. Likewise, our detention center is still a relatively new facility. Information about its location is included within the Detention feature button, the Sheriff’s Welcome section, and in the FAQ area.

We are particularly pleased with the Property Catalog, as we know most people struggle to stay organized and keep up with purchase dates, serial numbers, and the value of their possessions. But when people call us about lost or stolen property, we need that information to increase the likelihood of recovery. With the click of a button and a few keystrokes, app users can input the name and relevant details about their valuables into a private catalog and add photos to the file. In the event of a stolen vehicle, the user can share the VIN and license plate numbers, an image, and any other relevant info with the responding deputy without delay instead of searching for the records at home or calling the Department of Motor Vehicles. This tool is also great for storing serial numbers of televisions, chain saws, computers, etc.

The free app is now available for download from the App Store and Google Play by searching for “Orange County Sheriff, NC” or by clicking here. Be sure you include NC in your search; many other states also have Orange Counties. Or better yet, point your phone’s camera at the QR code below for a direct download.

Please explore the app and help us improve it by providing feedback. Contact Alicia Stemper, our communications manager, with your suggestions at (919) 245-2963 or email her at astemper@orangecountync.gov.

Earlier this month, we faced a flurry of online messages raising concern about school safety. Most were vague or made in other counties and states but later viewed by someone locally. In one case, we learned of a post referencing “OCMS.” We do not have a school in our district known by those initials, but we had to consider whether the post intended to reference Orange Middle School (OMS). Later, we learned the post referred to Otter Creek Middle School in Terra Haute, Indiana.

Many school districts are wrestling with similar issues. Authorities in Georgia recently charged more than 30 people in connection with threats made against the safety of educational property. Law enforcement officers in several other states also reported arrests.

We know that parents appreciate transparency and the opportunity to make informed choices. In that spirit, we notify the community when we learn of rumors. However, we are also aware that even talking about vague, unsubstantiated concerns raises anxiety and increases absenteeism. Neither of these is good for anyone.

We take disturbing social media posts and emails seriously. No leader charged with community safety can afford to do otherwise.  Even when we are unable to substantiate a threat, we increase our law enforcement presence at schools as a precaution, and we work with school system staff to inform the community.

Sharing information when concerns are vague, non-specific, and unsubstantiated may have the unintended effect of creating white noise. I am reminded of the Aesop fable known as “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and I ask myself if these repeated warnings will eventually dilute concern to the point where people ignore critical threats. However, as we move forward, we will continue to inform people of concerns or rumors. We will also notify the community about credible and verified threats to the safety of the school community. We hope people recognize that there is a difference, and we will do our best to make it crystal clear by the words we choose.

The school population needs to be safe from violence, and free from the interruption, fear, and distraction that whispers and inuendo cause. Arrests are increasing across the country for communicating a threat of mass violence on educational property - a clear signal that communities have no tolerance for those who threaten the safety of students and staff in our schools. Make no mistake. I am committed to identifying and prosecuting those who threaten or cause harm in our schools – even if they are juveniles. Parents also may face charges for contributing to the delinquency or neglect of a minor if they provide mobile devices to their children and fail to monitor their activities.

Please talk to your kids. Make sure they understand that if they see a message that concerns them, the proper response is to talk about it with you or a trusted adult at school. Tell them they are not to copy, forward, or share the message with other students. Spreading rumors or threats by electronic means is the modern-day equivalent of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. It leads to panic and harm while complicating our efforts to verify and appropriately respond to real and dangerous threats.

Likewise, please model the same behavior for your students. Before posting about a rumor, or adding your opinion to someone else’s thread, take a deep breath and ask yourself if what you are about to type is helpful. Are you sure it’s true? If it is just your feeling, do you need to post it for strangers to read? Maybe your time would be better spent calling the school or law enforcement to share your concern or reaching out to a friend for support. I am not minimizing anyone’s fears. I have grandchildren, and I see the worry in my daughter’s eyes. But we all need to manage the fear and work collectively to address this problem, rather than spinning a situation into an emotional frenzy that just feeds on itself and grows ever more chaotic.

There are dozens of law enforcement officers and school personnel who are trained in threat assessment and response.  We have resources to investigate threats and to power up increased safety protocols. If you or your children haveinformation about a potential threat, contact your school, call law enforcement, or use the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (www.saysomething.net) and let us get to work.

Two weeks ago, we were actively searching for convicted murderer Ramone Alston who jumped from a North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (DAC) transport vehicle upon arriving at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough. On foot, he headed north across Waterstone Drive and through a residential area. A witness saw him running past a neighborhood swimming pool, still wearing a belly chain and handcuffs.  Shortly thereafter, he vanished into the woods.

As an agency, our primary responsibility is to keep Orange County residents and visitors safe and able to move freely about their lives. Therefore, our top goals were to protect our community from Alston while assisting DAC with their efforts to capture him.

Alston evaded capture for 67 hours before law enforcement officers removed him from a hotel room in Kannapolis 110 miles away and returned him to DAC custody. I want to share what we were doing in the interim and tell you about a critical service that can keep you informed in a variety of crisis situations.

A search for an escaped prisoner requires resources and organization. After establishing a law-enforcement perimeter around the hospital campus, initiating K-9 searches, and deploying drone units to watch for Alston from the sky, I contacted Emergency Services Director Kirby Saunders and requested his help. Orange County Emergency Management (OCEM) is responsible for the preparedness, prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery from all hazards in Orange County. As such, OCEM arranged for the Orange County Campus of Durham Technical Community College to be our command center and began organizing hundreds of law enforcement officers arriving to help with the manhunt.

Almost immediately, the OCEM team pushed out a message using a reverse 911 process and the OC Alerts notification system to many of the people living within a three-mile radius of the hospital campus. The message provided a description of Alston and told residents what to do if they saw him.

Unfortunately, such “push messages” do not reach as many people as would be ideal. When most people had landline telephones, reverse 911 systems could blanket residents within defined geographical areas. Now, almost 75% of people in the US only use wireless phones. Therefore, it is critical for people without a landline to register their cell phones with OC Alerts. Currently, this valuable system is vastly underutilized.  Although the Orange County population is approximately 150,000, only 12,853 people are registered. That is only 8.5 percent!

Many people believe they will receive all relevant messages because they have received an AMBER alert or other safety message that “blew up” their phone. That belief is incorrect. Emergency management personnel can blanket all phones in an area in only two types of emergencies. The situation must either meet very specific and regulated qualifiers such as in the case of an AMBER or Blue alert, or the danger must pose a critical threat to everyone in the area. A critical threat might require evacuation or cause near-certain death if residents do not take immediate action. Examples include dam failures, airborne toxic chemicals, or raging and fast-moving wildfires.

Please go to www.ReadyOrange.org for information about disaster and emergency preparedness. The link to sign up for OC alerts is prominent in the middle of this page. Create an account, provide your phone number or email, and select the type of alerts you want to receive. The system allows you to identify special needs you or your family may have. Additionally, you can indicate whether you have specialized training or are willing to volunteer your skills or equipment during a crisis. You can also go directly to the sign-up page at www.ocalertsnc.com.

Returning to the events of two weeks ago, about two hours after issuing the first OC Alert, OCEM sent a second, similar message. This time they hit all landlines and registered cell phones within a five-mile radius. Obviously, the longer Alston was on the move, the farther away he could be, so they targeted a wider area.

We continued the ground search for two days: 335 members from 19 law enforcement agencies thoroughly covered 1335 acres. When finished, we could say with confidence that Alston was no longer in Orange County. Meanwhile, investigators continued their intelligence operation, gathering and analyzing the information that ultimately led to locating Alston. He is now in a maximum-security prison, and we arrested two people for aiding and abetting his escape.

We are extremely grateful to our OCEM partners – they are unsung heroes. Please thank them by creating or updating your existing OC Alert account.

###

When someone is in grave danger, law enforcement officials in North Carolina can request an emergency alert from the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons (NCCMP), a division of the Department of Public Safety. Officials designed these alerts to share information rapidly about a person who is missing, kidnapped, or poses a danger to law enforcement officers or the community at large.

Because these alerts are a plea for community assistance, the NCCMP requires detailed and relevant information. A vague alert is simply not useful.  Once the NCCMP approves the request, broadcasters interrupt regular programming to announce it, transportation officials post the information on emergency highway signs, the Wireless Emergency Alerts program distributes the news to cell phones, and the NC Education Lottery places the message on gaming terminals.

Each alert has a unique purpose. AMBER Alerts, an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, is the most widely known. It is named in memory of Amber Hagerman, a Texas nine-year-old, who was kidnapped and murdered. After her death, broadcasters in her state partnered with local police departments to design an early warning system to aid in the search for abducted children. Versions of the resulting program soon spread to other states.

AMBER Alerts are used for children under 18 years of age who are believed to have been abducted by someone other than a parent. If an alert is issued for a child taken by a parent, authorities must believe the child is in danger of injury or death, not merely a pawn in a custody dispute. Likewise, children who run away from home or are missing voluntarily do not qualify for an alert.

The Ashanti Alert Act is named after Ashanti Billie, a woman killed by her abductor in 2017. Law enforcement officers request Ashanti alerts when adults are missing under circumstances that indicate their physical safety is in peril, perhaps from domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking.

President Barack Obama signed Blue Alerts into law in 2015 after the murder of two New York City detectives while sitting in a patrol car. Prior to the attack, their killer posted threats on social media to the law enforcement community. Blue Alerts provide advance warning of credible threats, aid in the apprehension of violent criminals who killed or seriously injured an officer, and hinder an offender’s ability to flee the state.

North Carolina authorities no longer issue Silver Alerts. This reality surprises many people. In July 2023, the North Carolina Legislature replaced Silver Alerts with the Missing Endangered designation, but this change received little publicity.

Used in cases where a missing person had dementia or another cognitive impairment, Silver Alerts were effective. In fact, approximately 70% of people with dementia go missing at least once, and Silver Alerts have proven critical in many of the over 100,000 search and rescue missions conducted nationwide each year.

However, Silver Alerts applied only to people 50 years of age and older, and that limitation proved problematic. In recent years, my deputies also have searched for multiple people younger than 50 who went missing and were vulnerable to exploitation, physical vulnerability, or death. In these cases, we had no mechanism to notify the broader community quickly.  When officials removed the age restriction and renamed Silver Alerts to Missing Endangered Alerts, they vastly increased the number of adults who might benefit from this tool.

If you receive an alert, we need your help! AMBER, Ashanti, and Blue alerts all operate on the premise that someone may avoid a handful of law enforcement officers yet find it quite difficult to hide from thousands of people. Pay close attention to details in an alert. Watch for the missing person and keep an eye out for the suspect and vehicle described. Report any sightings immediately to 911. Do not engage directly with an abductor, but if feasible and safe, follow from a distance while reporting the person’s location and direction of travel.

With a Missing and Endangered alert, the dynamics are different. These situations generally involve a lost, scared, or vulnerable person. Though urgent, they rarely involve a perpetrator. Remain calm if you think you see the missing person. Call 911 and describe the situation and location. If you have a safe opportunity to interact, call the person by name, introduce yourself, and try to keep the person engaged until help arrives.

Above all, please do not ignore emergency alerts. We do not request them lightly, and the NCCMP considers them carefully. We appreciate your assistance.

###

“The days are long, but the years are short,” generally refers to the experience of parenting. However, as I write this, I am shocked to be looking down the barrel of July and seeing prime vacation season. Wasn’t it just New Year’s Eve a week or so ago?

As people prepare to travel, they juggle many tasks, including completing urgent workplace projects, planning an itinerary, coordinating pet care, and packing luggage. Given the number of distractions, it is not surprising that vacationers often forget to attend to the security of their homes and the belongings they plan to leave behind.

I believe travelers should wait until they return home before they share pictures and information on social media platforms about their vacation. “Having a great time at the Grand Canyon,” broadcasts a family is out of town, whereas “We had fun in Arizona last week. Enjoy our Grand Canyon photos,” conveys the same information without widely announcing the absence.

I frequently advise people that nosy neighbors are a terrific alarm system! Sharing travel plans and exchanging contact information with them is a good practice. Ask nearby residents to keep an eye on your place, and if you are comfortable, give a trusted neighbor a key to your home or the keypad code to your garage. In the event of a screaming smoke alarm, gas leak, or broken pipe, that person can grant access to emergency responders or repair workers. Neighbors can also check your mail, take packages off your porch, grab newspapers from your driveway, and return garbage bins to the side of your house after trash pick-up. When no one attends to these chores for several days, people with malicious intent may recognize an opportunity to break into an unoccupied residence.

Many properties have security cameras, such as Ring, Blink, Nest, or Arlo Pro. These systems require routine maintenance. Because they only work with steady access to power or working batteries, check that all is in order before you leave town. Likewise, if your system uses local storage, such as a flash drive, delete old clips to ensure you have enough available space to accommodate the length of your trip. If your camera is motion activated and delivers a live feed but does not store video, make sure you know how to take screenshots of any unusual activity.

Relatively speaking, home security systems are new technology. Have you thought through what you will do if you see suspicious activity at your residence in real time while you are away? How do you notify your law enforcement agency back home? Fortunately, all North Carolina call centers now use an integrated system, allowing dispatchers to efficiently route a 911 call placed anywhere in the state to the telecommunication center here in Orange County. However, if you are out of state, calling 911 will not help you reach anyone in this area. Therefore, I strongly encourage you to store the direct number for our dispatch center in your contacts. It is (919) 732-5063.

Our office provides two services of interest to vacationers. Upon request, and if not too busy with emergency calls, deputies will conduct either a “close patrol” or a “house check” of an Orange County property. During a close patrol, deputies will be in the vicinity of the identified address more often usual, perhaps providing periods of a stationary presence in the general area. When conducting house checks, deputies perform more detailed inspections by exiting their patrol vehicles and walking around the residence, physically ensuring doors and windows are secure. With either service, if the deputies discover any problems, they will call you or your emergency contact. If you would like to sign up for a close patrol or house check, please fill out the form available on our website, or call us at (919)245-2900. If possible, please arrange for this service three or more days before you leave for vacation.

We will do our best to keep your residence and belongings safe while you are away. We encourage you to also think about your personal safety while on vacation. Three important tips: make sure children know what to do if they get lost or separated from you, designate a specific person to watch kids around bodies of water, and diligently minimize distractions before driving on unfamiliar roads.

Please be careful, have fun, and bring home happy memories!

###

In early May, county manager Bonnie Hammersley released her recommended budget for the upcoming fiscal year, only a few weeks after she announced her plans to retire effective July 31, 2024. Chief among Bonnie’s many accomplishments during her time here in Orange County is her approach to the budget. She introduced a process for wrestling with this enormous task that I believe will remain as her most profound legacy. Personally, I am glad she will lead us through the budget adoption process one more time before she concludes her service.

Bonnie started working for Orange County in the summer of 2014. At that time, I was actively running my first campaign. I had been involved in the budgetary process while serving under the former sheriff, and I think it is fair to say the county’s system at the time was complex and convoluted. I worked to understand different concepts, such as a zero-based budget versus a balanced one, and I worried about the process, which felt exceedingly daunting.  Once elected in November, I met with the county manager. The very first thing Bonnie told me was not to worry about the budget. She promised the process would be simplified and it would work better. She was correct, and I’ve never been more grateful.

State law requires county managers to present a balanced budget each year. I frequently spend time with North Carolina’s other 99 sheriffs, and when I hear their nightmarish budget stories, I am so appreciative of Bonnie’s leadership and the guidance of the wonderful team in finance.

But for the difference in scale, county and household budgets resemble each other. When designing a budget, it is important to first determine income sources and fixed expenses.  Next, emergencies and unexpected costs should be anticipated before ultimately charting a spending plan for the year that prioritizes needs while still allowing room to accommodate values-based decisions regarding any wants.  Guiding principles for drafting a budget, whether public or personal, should include reasonableness and achievability.

Bonnie and deputy county manager Travis Myren brought a new process to Orange County. Instead of each department submitting their own budget requests for consideration, management organized us into functional leadership teams, such as Education, General Government, and Human Services, where departments with thematically similar missions collaborated. Along with Emergency Services, the Criminal Justice Resource Department, and the courts, the Sheriff’s Office became part of the Public Safey group.

Each department examined its desired programs, equipment requirements, interesting projects, and training needs, and selected its top five priorities for the year. These priorities formed the Public Safety master list.  As a team, we then ranked items on the list, selecting the top three from each group of five. If a particular item on my list was also valued by other departments in the group, we ranked it highly.

Essentially, we were collaborating to vet each department’s budget request and forward it with the support and approval of the Public Safety team. In this manner, we focused on the needs, narrowed the list of wants, and presented a mutually agreed upon priority list to the manager.

Bonnie and Travis would then search for cost-effective ways to meet the identified needs. At every step, the process sought to get the best bang for the taxpayers’ buck and be a good steward of the funds entrusted to Orange County government.  Meanwhile, the manager repeated this process with other functional leadership teams, eventually combining requests into a balanced budget which she recommended for adoption to the Board of County Commissioners. The Commissioners would then meet with each department to fine tune the budget, working from a set of priorities and numbers that reflected consideration, discussion, ranking, and trimming by knowledgeable people. This process, like many other things, morphed somewhat during the pandemic, but the tenets of it still guide us today.

The thought that the Sheriff or any department head can financially run amuck is far-fetched. It is entertaining at best and dangerous at worst. With Bonnie’s guidance, we participated in a process that looked outward, not inward, and started with dedication to serving residents and exercising fiscal responsibility.

It is no secret that I want to lead a premier agency, progressive in the way we think, work, and train. I am grateful to Bonnie and her team for helping me accomplish these goals within a budget that has been vetted by my peers, supported by the manager, and approved by the commissioners.

I wish Bonnie Hammersley well in her retirement and future adventures, and I thank her for making the budget process transparent, logical, and efficient.

###