The Lowdown Archive

Orange County students recently started a new school year, always an exciting time for parents, teachers, and staff. Most are full of hope and eager to improve on the successes of last year. But in every parent’s heart, the excitement is likely tinged with worry. Will my children adapt to new teachers and increased academic rigor? Will they avoid harassment from the lunchroom bully? Is their bus driver experienced? And the most important question – are our schools safe?

Your Sheriff’s Office has a robust school resource officer (SRO) program to answer this last question. Operating under a Memorandum of Understanding with Orange County Schools, and a separate contract with Eno River Academy, we have an SRO in 14 schools, and two deputies each at Orange and Cedar Ridge high schools. We’ve grown significantly since the program began in 1994 with only two SROs, one each at Orange High School and C.W. Stanford Middle School!

Some people question why law enforcement officers are in schools. In response, I ask them to think of other large gatherings, such as sporting events, festivals, parades, road races, and concerts. Law enforcement officers are present at these as a matter of routine. These events have three commonalities - crowds, people with differing levels of emotional regulation, and the possibility of chaos or mass casualties if something goes wrong or someone tries to cause harm. An educational setting is likewise possessed of these same factors. In the worst case scenario of a mass shooting, response time is critical. As Tina Sykes, the Major responsible for the SRO program, likes to say, “When it comes to the safety of our students, I’d rather it take 15 seconds for a deputy to respond from somewhere else in the building than to wait seven or more minutes for one to arrive from somewhere else in the county.”

The North Carolina General Statutes define a school resource officer as a law enforcement officer assigned to one or more public schools, at least 20 hours per week, to assist with school security, emergency preparedness, emergency response, and any other responsibility assigned by the employing unit. In addition to the mandatory annual in-service requirements for all deputies, an SRO must successfully complete a forty-hour certification course that will, at minimum, contain diversity and equity, tactical, and mental health training.

SROs are not disciplinarians, truant officers, school administrators, or attorneys. They are dedicated to fostering a safe and secure environment, serving as mentors, and assisting with education on law-related topics like forensics or civics. In the course of their duties, they form relationships with students and their families, relationships that would not exist if deputies served the school only when dispatched in response to 911 calls.

Students frequently confide in an SRO about problems they experience, or share concerns about others, such as suicidal ideation or self-injurious behaviors. With this information, SROs can provide extra support, investigate the situation, and respond in a coordinated manner with school officials. In other words, SROs exist to address problems, not arrest problems. They understand the difference between misbehavior and true criminal conduct.

In cases where a student commits an actual criminal offense at school, SROs take a measured approach. If the infraction is minor and represents the first time the student has offended, SROs issue a warning to the student and notify the parent. If the student commits a subsequent criminal violation, the SRO might refer the matter to the Youth Deflection Program, the Dispute Settlement Center, or the Volunteers for Youth Teen Court Program. Unless the matter is very serious, or if the student demonstrates escalating criminal behavior despite attempts to employ these alternative resources, SROs make significant efforts to divert the case from the criminal justice system. In the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 school years, SROs diverted 90 and 91 percent of criminal matters, respectively.

SROs perform many other functions. They prevent or intervene in situations of dating violence, assist with disruptions involving intoxicated or impaired parents, navigate custody issues, answer questions about domestic violence protective orders, and facilitate creating safe ways for parents to be involved in their student’s education if they are on the sex offender registry. They manage to provide all these benefits while serving their primary purpose to reduce critical response time from minutes to seconds and prevent violence and mass casualties.

I am proud of the positive and long-lasting impact our SROs make every day. Moreover, I am grateful they share my commitment to ensuring our schools are as safe as possible.

Earlier this week, the 100 sheriffs of our state elected and installed me as the president of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA). Serving as the president of this group is a high honor and a tremendous responsibility, which I am only able to accept with the support of my family and my team here at the office.

The Association’s mission is to protect, promote, preserve, and enhance the Office of Sheriff in North Carolina through education, training, and legislative initiatives that increase public safety and protect the rights of the residents of North Carolina.

The office of sheriff has a history over 1200 years old, dating back to the Middle Ages. The role grew and changed over the centuries, and English settlers “imported” a version of the position to the New World as they sought personal freedom alongside the rule of law. The first American counties were established in Virginia; one of these counties elected a sheriff in 1651, before the United States was even an independent nation. Today, with few exceptions, a sheriff is an elected official serving as the chief law-enforcement officer for his or her county. Although a police chief has similar duties within a municipality, a sheriff typically has additional responsibilities such as providing for the security of the courthouses, processing civil paperwork, assisting people with pistol purchase and concealed weapon permits, and maintaining a detention facility and providing for the needs of those confined therein.

This is the NCSA’s 100th anniversary, and we have accomplished a great deal. I am proud to lead us into a second century of service. As society continues to change, we must constantly adapt to the needs of our communities. Our organization works closely with the National Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sheriffs’ Association to explore best practices and solutions for the problems and opportunities of modern life.

As president, I will serve as the face of the NCSA. Through it, I will speak to state and national media outlets about the Association’s position on topics of interest, and I will represent our group during times of loss. I also represent the NCSA at the meetings of many groups, such as the National Sheriffs’ Association, the State Bureau of Investigation, the NC General Assembly, and the North Carolina Victims’ Assistance Network. I make appointments within the Association, including to the Auditing, Training, and Legislative committees, and to external groups such as the Domestic Preparedness and Readiness Committee, the NC Fully Autonomous Vehicle Committee, and the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.

It’s extremely important that I get this presidency right. For the next year, not only will I be making decisions based on the goals and values of Orange County voters, I will also be discussing statewide issues such as mental health, immigration, gun violence, and the legalization of marijuana with 99 other sheriffs. Other sheriffs serve communities with different priorities and viewpoints regarding these critically important and incredibly complex topics. We will wrestle with our differences and arrive at a policy position that we feel is the best path forward for the entire state. We will then discuss the Association’s recommendation with our legislative delegations, letting them know if the NCSA opposes, supports, or takes no position on the issue at hand.

Let me give you an example. As a group, Orange County voters favor the legalization of marijuana more than voters in conservative counties do. As an association, the NCSA recently supported legislation regarding legalizing medical marijuana for use at home. Voters in some counties might be disappointed by this; voters in other counties might feel we did not go far enough. The reality is many hands touch a bill as it moves along the path to becoming a state law. As a body of law-enforcement leaders, we must advocate for what is in the overall best interests of the state, and we are more influential when we speak with one voice. Our opinions and perspectives as law-enforcement leaders are vital to helping ensure that any laws passed in the State Legislature are manageable, fair, and do not create problems that will be detrimental to our communities.

 

It is a considerable honor to be elected as the Sheriff of a county, and I am so pleased my fellow sheriffs trust me to lead our Association. I promise to do my best with these dual responsibilities. I remain grateful to the voters for their confidence in me, and to my team for joining me in service to this community.

Physical trauma is the leading cause of death for people aged one through 46, and it accounts for 30% of all deaths. Many traumatic injuries can cause death within three to six minutes. However, on average, emergency medical service providers arrive on scene between seven and 14 minutes after the trauma occurs. When seconds matter, this delay represents a dangerous gap.

Deputies usually arrive to a scene first, but even when the ambulance reaches the scene before deputies, medical providers cannot begin to render aid until law enforcement officers mitigate the danger, control traffic hazards, or conduct a security sweep of the premises.

Deputies receive CPR and first aid training during a week-long block of instruction during Basic Law Enforcement Training. Although reasonably comprehensive, this education does not begin to compare to the training, experience, and equipment paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMT) bring to a scene. Until last month, deputies arrived at a scene with a rapid response first aid kit. This compact, lightweight kit is likely better than the first aid supplies most community members have in their residences or vehicles, but at a cost of less than $65.00, it pales in comparison to the skills of a paramedic or EMT and the supplies onboard an ambulance!

I wanted to increase the quality of medical care deputies could provide to victims while they waited for more comprehensively trained people with better equipment to arrive on scene. Therefore, I recently purchased 31 portable trauma and emergency medical response kits from Zoll Medical. Called Mobilize kits, these have an Android tablet built-in to the lid of the carrying case. The tablet is preloaded with an instructional rescue app that launches when someone lifts the lid. The kits also have medical supplies clearly labeled, logically organized, and color-coded to match the instructions in the rescue app. In other words, the Mobilize kits are designed to fill the gap between the occurrence of the trauma and the arrival of advanced emergency medical personnel. The kit and the onboard app help deputies and even bystanders with no training at all assess, manage, and monitor medical emergencies, potentially providing lifesaving care. The faster care can be provided, the better the chance of a successful outcome.

I am pleased to report that Corporal Doug Moats successfully saved a life during the week he first took possession of a Mobilize kit. He responded to a shots fired call and found a victim with multiple gunshot wounds, including two sucking chest wounds (one with an exit wound) and severe facial trauma. Moats placed three chest seals on the victim, and properly managed the facial injuries until emergency medical providers arrived several minutes later.

While treating the victim, Moats realized another benefit of the kit. With his level of prior training (which is greater than most of my deputies have), he was able to use the kit as a well-stocked supply cabinet; he did not need to follow the instructions from the app. Had there been an additional victim, an untrained family member or bystander could have simultaneously rendered care to that person by following the step-by-step assessment questions and treatment instructions embedded in the app; these use protocols and best practices as set by the American Heart Association, Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, and the American College of Surgeons. In other words, the kit is useful to people almost without regard to the level of knowledge they bring to the emergency.

Reflecting on the experience, Deputy Moats related that people keep telling him he saved a life, but he does not feel his efforts were anything extraordinary. Although the hospital trauma doctor told the paramedic supervisor the chest seals Moats placed saved the victim’s life, Moats explained that having those seals quite literally at his fingertips is what made the save possible.

Every deputy on patrol will eventually have the Mobilize system in his or her vehicle and we are purchasing 14 more kits to put in other strategic areas throughout the county. We will familiarize other first responders and the leaders of area businesses and non-profits with information about the kits and their locations. The kits are so intuitive, an 8th grader can use them, rendering care and providing a trauma victim with the precious time he or she needs need to survive until emergency medical service providers arrive.

I am confident these kits will continue to save lives. Please come by the office if you would like to familiarize yourself with a Mobilize trauma kit.

The United States recognizes National Police Week annually; on May 13 the names of officers, deputies, and other law enforcement agents who died in the line of duty during the previous year are read aloud at a candlelight vigil on the National Mall in Washington, DC. At the vigil, organizers also honor historical line-of-duty deaths. This year, we commemorated the service of Deputy Duncan Joseph Nichols, whose sacrifice had not previously been recognized on the national level. Nichols died in 1904, 58 years before President John F. Kennedy signed the yearly observance of Peace Officer’s Memorial Day into law.

Nichols’ death also came 80 years prior to the founding of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) in 1984. This nonprofit organization built and maintains the national memorial to fallen officers. I shared the facts and circumstances of Deputy Nichol’s death with the Fund in July 2021, and it notified us of his acceptance last August. The National Memorial bears the names of 23,229 officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. The total includes 619 new names; the 472 officers killed in the line of duty in 2021 and 147 people, like Deputy Nichols, whose death has only recently been verified and recognized.

In brief, James Knapp Horner, 58, shot Deputy Nichols in the arm on September 9, 1904 as Nichols attempted to serve a warrant on Knapp for allegedly whipping his daughter-in-law. Nichols bled to death from a severed artery before he could make it home to his family. A posse captured Horner three days later, shooting him in the side during his arrest. Horner’s wounds were not fatal and did not require hospitalization. Convicted of second degree murder in 1905, a court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Deputy Nichols had a wife and four daughters. The youngest was just a few weeks past her third birthday at the time of her father’s death. His wife of almost 20 years, Pattie, never remarried. She died in 1942, living almost 38 years as a widow. Nichols’ parents and nine siblings also survived him. As I sit here, more than a century later, I find the gravity of his loss difficult to comprehend. As Sheriff, I fear little as much as the line-of-duty death of one of my employees. I hope they understand that ensuring Nichols received this long-overdue acknowledgement is one small way I signal that I fully recognize the magnitude of their willingness to serve and sacrifice for this community every day.

Representatives of my office traveled to Washington, DC this month to attend the vigil and view the addition of Nichols’ name to the monument. They attended with William “Bryan” Sykes, his wife Kandi, Wiley Arnold Sykes, and his wife Jean. The Sykes brothers are two of Nichols’ great grandsons; they are the grandsons of his daughter Lida May, who was five when her father died.

Although no one alive ever met Deputy Nichols, the events of the weekend were nonetheless emotional. At the law enforcement museum, the group viewed a wall on which photos of the newly recognized officers were displayed. Something about seeing Nichols’ face in such a formal display brought the loss of him into the room. Most survivors were there to grieve a much more recent death, including a boy of about 10, dressed in a perfectly tailored Sullivan County, TN sheriff’s deputy uniform, paying tribute to his father. The freshness of his grief merged with our knowledge of the pain long-dead residents of Orange County once endured. Someday, over a century in the future, the 10-year old’s grandchildren might be in Washington, DC honoring a man they never met.

The memorial wall sits across the street from the museum. Row after row of names carved into limestone create a permanent record of service and sacrifice. You have to see it to understand the beauty and the solemnity; I hope you find the opportunity to do so someday.

Every year at the candlelight vigil honoring the line-of-duty deaths from the prior year and historical deaths such as Deputy Nichols, thousands of people listen to the names read into the night. A bell tolls after each state’s list of names concludes. Speeches and musical tributes add dimension to the ceremony which culminates with thousands of candles piercing the darkness – the light a symbol of the personal love of immediate survivors and the enduring gratitude of the rest of us, who live protected by the thin blue line.

If you are interested in learning more or donating to the NLEOMF, please go to https://nleomf.org/. Thank you.

Last month, we moved all detention operations into our new facility on Highway 70 West. Our old site opened in 1925 with capacity for 34 people. Despite adding an annex in 1994 and renovating the kitchen in 2012, the 97-year-old facility was decades behind modern standards. 

Detention Officer Lisa Thompson characterized the move as the beginning of a new era. She said, “I’ve worked here for 20 years. When I was hired, they were talking about a new jail. It is so nice to finally have one.” 

For years, state inspectors with the NC Department of Health and Human Services cited us for multiple inadequacies. We weren’t passing inspections – in our obsolete facility, we couldn’t. Our kitchen, medical, and laundry facilities were insufficient, and in many cases either impossible or inordinately expensive to repair. Here’s just one example: a shower drain stopped working two or three years ago – a simple clog. After digging up the floor, we learned the cast iron pipe around the drain pipe had disintegrated. For a time, water was still able to pass through the concrete channel around the pipe, but eventually that failed as well. That “simple” drain problem cost $25,000 to fix. 

We also had numerous safety concerns, such as an inadequate suicide prevention cell and no sprinkler system. The cost to retrofit the jail with sprinklers? Almost two million dollars! 

Recognizing the momentous – and rare – nature of the occasion, we called the operational plan governing community safety during the move “Blue Moon.” With help from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and a State Bureau of Investigation task force, we moved 70 inmates from the old facility to the new one in a process that took over five hours and involved more than 80 people. We searched each person as they exited the old jail and again as they entered the new one. We also checked each person’s belongings for contraband before separately shuttling property to the new facility. 

Captain Katie Spear said we didn’t just move; we walked out of one dimension and into another. She is correct. The company that made the gates, keys, and locking mechanisms for the old facility has been out of business for years. We had difficulty finding anyone capable of making repairs. The new building has a state-of-the art electronic system. No one needs to walk around with rings of old style keys, fumbling to find the right one.

Major Tim Jones is our Jail Administrator. He has noticed a drastically improved work flow in the new space. Detention officers seated at a centralized control tower open and shut electronic doors from a video console as other officers accompany residents to different parts of the building, such as to the medical area or to the attorney visitation booths. 

The new 48,900-square-foot facility has space for 144 inmates. We can now better serve their safety, security, and human service needs. We have a properly equipped kitchen, a larger laundry room, a better medical facility, a break room for employees, and adequate storage. Major Jones will have a supervisors meeting after all four squads rotate through day and night shift duty. At the meeting, he will collect observations and create a work flow punch list to improve our ability to maximize the modern capabilities of the facility. 

There are two workrooms within the secure part of the building. Community professionals and staff members from the Criminal Justice Resource Department will use these rooms to provide education and specialized programming designed to help residents of the facility make a successful transition back to the community. We are also pleased to have tablets available for inmate use. These devices allow video visits and text exchanges with loved ones; all such visits and communications are monitored. Although residents do not have access to the internet other than through the Paytel service, if a person takes an online anger management or drug education class, he or she can earn points toward watching a movie or playing an approved video game. 

There’s no way to sugarcoat it; the old facility was rough. Everyone associated with the new facility benefits from the improved air quality and the brighter, less cramped space. People confined there now live in a cleaner, more modern facility better suited to their often complicated needs; and the safer, brighter facility certainly boosts employee morale. We dreamed about this new detention center for two decades. Captain Spear said it best: “It feels like we went from a T-Rex to a Tesla.”

Earlier this month, a child ran away from school. A teacher followed the child who was running through a wooded area in the direction of a heavily-trafficked road. For the privacy of the child, I will not mention the name of the school or provide details about the student; those facts do not matter. What matters is a student was upset, fleeing on foot, and headed toward a busy highway.

In response to a 911 call, several deputies flooded the area. One of them caught the child, mere feet from the shoulder of the road. He wrapped his arms around the student from the back in a cradling bear hug and sat down, functioning almost as a human car seat. Once seated, however, he could not get back up. The ground was muddy and the child was fighting, struggling, and screaming “Let me go!” Trying to stand from a seated position, without the use of one’s arms, is surprisingly difficult to do.

Two deputies positioned their cruisers between the pair and the passing traffic. The space was so narrow, their vehicles were partially in the travel lane. Traffic had to move into a center turning lane to pass them.

Before the situation resolved, community members began calling our front desk. Some people inquired about the heavy police presence in the area. When told we were helping with a child who ran away from school, a few callers asked whether that was a law- enforcement matter. Others wanted to know how many adults it takes to “wrangle” a child, and we later started seeing posts on Facebook about deputies giving a child CPR.

Although I suppose we could get defensive about such calls, we recognize these inquiries for the opportunities they present. The general public does not know what our jobs are like on a day-to-day basis, and it is easy to make incorrect assumptions about unfamiliar things. No doubt motorists were troubled by what they saw, and the Facebook posts reflect their efforts to make sense of the scene. We routinely face multi-dimensional problems and rapidly evolving situations. We must creatively problem solve within the framework of the law and our training.

Every deputy who responded to this call played a pivotal role, and is therefore part of the reason for the heavy police presence. As I’ve said before, “law enforcement” is too narrow of a term to describe our work. We offer community support, and our deputies are safety professionals. I can’t think of another agency with the skills, training, equipment, mobility, and response time to handle the situation I describe above.

The child in question verbalized an adamant refusal to calm down, and continued to struggle and yell, “Let me go.” Although the deputy kept the child’s arms pressed against his abdomen, he still managed to grab a shoe and throw it striking an approaching deputy in the head. Then, as two deputies tried to help the sitting deputy stand, the child freed one of his arms momentarily. He picked up a stick and rapidly thrust it overhead, trying to strike the face of the confining deputy. One of the assisting deputies partially blocked the thrust; the stick lightly scratched the holding deputy’s face, narrowly missing his eye.

In all, it took five adults to resolve this situation – six counting the teacher. Luckily, the deputy who held the student has specialized, advanced training in Gracie Survival Tactics (GST), or it might have necessitated more. GST is a martial art, modified for use by law enforcement, military, and first responders. Practitioners use principles such as leverage and distance management when grappling with an opponent, regardless of the other person’s size. The deputy in this situation knew how to keep the child safely contained until he ran out of gas.

The child eventually calmed down. Obviously, confidentiality requirements prevent us from saying more about the situation, but I want to assure the public that the child was not harmed. Professionals with the school and the child’s parents are working to meet his needs.

I am grateful to the News of Orange for providing me this forum to educate the community about our services, and I am glad people care enough to call my office when they see something that concerns them. If you’d like to learn more about our work, please contact Lieutenant Roberson at our office to talk about joining an upcoming Citizens’ Academy. His number is (919) 245-2921.

NC Vision Zero (NCVZ), a program of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP), has an ambitious goal. NCVZ wants to see zero crashes, serious injuries, and fatalities on state roadways. Most of us might initially be tempted to disregard this goal as unrealistic, especially given that the number of North Carolina traffic fatalities last year was the highest in almost five decades. But if asked how many traffic deaths would be acceptable within your family this year, what would you say? I think you would quickly join Team Zero. 

NCVZ pursues this goal through collaborative, data-driven interventions. Brian Whitehurst, a lieutenant with my office, is the regional law enforcement liaison to the GHSP. Tasked with all things related to traffic, communications, and logistics, he manages the four speed awareness signs we purchased with GHSP funds.

These sophisticated devices use radar to measure the speed of approaching vehicles. They display a “Thank You” message if the speed is appropriate or a “slow down” message if it is not. My deputies routinely ask motorists during traffic stops if they know how fast they were travelling. A surprising number of times, the answer is “I’m sorry. I have no idea.” Speeding violations often represent accidental inattention, not deliberate disregard. These speed signs can provide the visual jolt a driver needs.

The signs are efficient, impartial, and accurate data collection workhorses. The onboard computer records and reports information such as how many vehicles pass the sign per hour, allowing Lieutenant Whitehurst to see when traffic volume is highest and at what time of day motorists exceed the posted speed by the highest percentage. Sometimes we deploy the signs in an area known to have multiple crashes; other times we place them in response to the request of residents.

Two important traffic metrics guide enforcement campaigns. One is the 50th percentile speed, which is the speed at or below which 50 percent of the drivers travel on a particular segment of road. The other is the 85th percentile, a number representing the speed at which 85 percent of drivers on a given road would travel at or below if there were no speed limit signs or speed controlling measures. Speed awareness signs are generally able to capture how fast a vehicle is traveling before a motorist can respond to seeing it. Software calculates these metrics every hour, providing rich information about traffic patterns. Speeds in between these percentiles are the “common sense metric,” as they tend to closely track the actual safe speed for a section of road. In fact, research shows drivers travelling at speeds between the 50th and the 85th percentile are unlikely to have a crash caused by excessive speed. It also reveals those who exceed the 90th percentile have a significantly higher risk of crashing. 

We know these signs are effective. When Lieutenant Whitehurst looks at the graph of average speed on a specific road, the speed almost always declines after a sign is installed. Generally, he leaves a sign in a location for a week or two before moving it. This is long enough to achieve positive effects, but not so long that travelers in that area stop “seeing” the sign. 

Some of the information the signs collect is interesting, but not very useful. We might learn the highest speed recorded last Tuesday in a 35-mile-per-hour zone was 60 mph and the lowest was 25. The high speed might have been an ambulance; the low might have been someone driving slowly looking for a lost pet. In other words, single data points don’t tell us anything, but if the sign reveals the highest speed per day is always around the same time, it may be wise to post a deputy in the neighborhood to modify this recurring behavior. 

Engineers built several interesting safety features into these devices. For example, Lieutenant Whitehurst is able to set the maximum speed the sign will display, regardless of a passing driver’s actual rate of travel. Unfortunately, in the absence of such a safeguard, some motorists might be tempted to make the sign flash 100 while taking a photo for social media! Additionally, the signs have integrated cameras which record photos of anyone tampering with or vandalizing the device.

To end where I began, the Vision Zero goal is ambitious and worthy of aggressive pursuit. We want you, your family members, and your neighbors to “arrive alive” every journey, every day. If you have a traffic safety concern, please give Lt. Whitehurst a call at (919) 245-2916 to discuss what we can do to help.

Law enforcement officers often respond to multiple calls involving people struggling to function well in society. Examples include people with substance user disorder, people experiencing homelessness, individuals with severe mental illness, and those with chronic family discord. Usually, the responding officer can do little to solve or even improve these difficult problems. Deputies also respond to calls involving people who need assistance when they are victims of or witnesses to crime, disaster, or trauma. Such trauma can be overwhelming.

Obviously, both types of calls are inherently stressful; that stress is compounded by the hypervigilance required to make sure no one is harmed. Deputies perform these services either roadside, or in homes or community settings – generally places where the officer has little control over the environment and limited knowledge of potential risks in the setting. Moreover, officers work in an assortment of uncomfortable situations, such as inclement weather, poor lighting, loud environments, unsanitary living conditions, in the presence of death and decay, or when being yelled at, berated, or videotaped.

Law enforcement officers generally gravitate to this work because they have a desire to help people. Some describe police work as “a calling.” These noble intentions, however, do not shield officers from the stresses I describe, nor do they protect from the emotional injury caused by what is known as a critical incident. This term refers to any actual or alleged event that creates a significant risk of substantial or serious harm to the physical or mental health of those involved.

Most people experience an estimated two to three critical incidents in a lifetime; law enforcement officers have 18 such exposures PER YEAR. A 2015 study places the average exposure to critical incidents over a law enforcement career at 188 such events.

The consequences of critical incidents and job-based stress have been compounded by the effects of the pandemic. Additionally, relationships between law enforcement and the community as described by the media are not always accurate, and these portrayals are harmful to the morale of law enforcement officers. You could say it is a perfect storm.

As Sheriff, I am much like a football coach. I cannot win without players prepared, willing, and able to serve. For us, a win is a successful response to a call for service or officer-initiated action. Therefore, it is incumbent on me to mitigate the effects of the trauma my deputies encounter.

Gone are the days when we expect deputies to “shake it off” or “suck it up.” Elevated risk for suicide, unhealthy substance use, and divorce rates in our profession speak to the inadequacy of that culture. The consequences of repeated exposure to stress and critical incidents demand a comprehensive commitment to mental health. As such, we offer:

 Peer and agency support: we expect our supervisors to encourage those on their shift to talk about their experiences. In the aftermath of a situation where the deputy’s life was at stake, or where the deputy witnessed the physical and emotional devastation of a suicide, rape, or murder, he or she is not expected to act as though it never happened.

 The services of FMRT: this agency provides psychological and medical support for safety-sensitive employers. Our deputies are familiar with this group as they also perform our pre-hire suitability assessments.

 Debriefing sessions: the county’s emergency services department holds optional sessions for all stakeholders involved in highly intense critical incidents. Participants review the event, discuss their human responses to it, support one another, and learn about warning signs and support options should the negative effects of the event persist or worsen.

 Orange County Employee Assistance Program: deputies can access the same services available to any county employee when they are experiencing stresses or situations that interfere with quality of life.

 NCLEAP: this 501(c)(3) non-profit organization provides peer-driven assistance to first responders who have been involved in critical incidents.

 Emergency Chaplains: we receive assistance from this Durham-based organization which is available to minister to us while working side-by-side to care for people in crisis.

What can you do? Follow the rules, and if you break them, understand that the deputy holding you accountable is serving the community, not picking on you. Recognize that ours is a job that demands more than many are willing or able to give; it has an impact on our lives. When you see deputies in the community, offer a kind word or a friendly wave. Much like a football team finds it easier to play in front of a supportive crowd, such gestures go a long way.

In early June 2021, the Asheville Police Department, citing a staffing shortage, notified their community that officers would no longer respond to some calls for service, including thefts or vandalism with no suspect information, scams, funeral escorts, and certain harassing phone call complaints. I believe their decision came as a shock to many. Regardless, they communicated the change clearly to the Asheville community. 

Shortly after, members of my command staff attended a webinar entitled “What Your Community Wants from the Police – Clarifying the Rules of Engagement” offered by the Dolan Consulting Group. The training started by recognizing the mixed messages directed to law enforcement. For example, we are called to respond to (and solve) a host of societal problems such as noise complaints, intoxicated people, break-ins, property disputes, and undisciplined children. These calls are time consuming, and they can make it difficult to provide the rapid response people expect when they call 911 with a dire emergency. Similarly, we are expected to keep roadways safe and crime rates low, but people only want us to enforce the traffic or criminal violations of people other than themselves! 

The webinar encouraged agencies to clarify the rules of engagement, make decisions regarding service priorities, and communicate both to the community. I decided to approach this task by commissioning a poll through Public Policy Polling (PPP), an agency nationally acclaimed for their accurate results. They surveyed a representative sample of Orange County voters about their thoughts and opinions regarding how they wished to be policed. Many law enforcement professionals I spoke to about this poll essentially asked me, “Why would you want to do that?” In return, I asked them, “Why wouldn’t you?” Some of them have Citizens’ Advisory Boards, an idea I am not comfortable with because I am unable to delegate my constitutional authority to anyone. Moreover, as an official elected by the entire county, I must endeavor to serve everyone, and it is difficult to think a dozen or so people could be a fair proxy for the opinions of a population of 145,000. The sample size is simply too small. 

PPP surveyed 740 Orange County voters and employed weighting to the data to ensure the demographic breakdown of those polled closely approximated the population of Orange County. The respondent pool was 75% white, 12% African-American, 8% other, and 5% Hispanic or Latino. Fifty-five percent of the respondents were Democrat, 16% were Republican, and 29% were Independent or a member of another party. A deeper dive into the gender, age, education, and residential area (urban, suburban, or rural) of respondents is beyond the scope of this article, but all generally tracked the composition of voters in our county. The opportunity to have insight into the opinions of a truly cross-sectional sampling of the county in a poll with a margin of error of only +/- 3.6 is invaluable. 

The poll queried the priority people felt my office should give to 15 law enforcement practices. We are now studying the resulting data and determining how to best adapt our service to the preferences of Orange County residents. I should note that nothing in the poll will affect how we respond to violent crime and carry out our constitutionally prescribed duties. Rather, the poll examined how our residents want us to police on matters allowing for more discretion, such as traffic enforcement, property crimes, quality of life calls, and requests for service that do not involve an imminent threat to people. We will repeat the poll at regular intervals, allowing us to adjust to the changing desires of those we serve. The poll will help us be accountable to our residents and elected officials, and it will help us have a framework to respond to calls for service in accordance with the wishes of the community as a whole, not just to the loudest voices at any particular moment. 

The data we now have are rich with possibility. Some clear themes emerged; residents want us to help protect their property and their ability to live in peace. They value protecting children in schools, and overall, they are not very concerned about expired tags or personal use of marijuana. We look forward to the opportunity to review policy and tailor service delivery to the desires of the community, and to communicating any changes to Orange County residents.

Missing person cases typically involve people who run away, wander off, get lost, or deliberately disappear. We rarely work a true abduction or kidnapping case, but such a situation is always possible. People should call 911 immediately if they discover a loved one missing. It is a myth that a person must be missing for 24 hours before deputies will take a report. Call immediately, and let us get started.

We appreciate the interest our missing person cases receive, especially on social media. People share our posts, helping them reach a wider audience, and resulting in a greater number of people looking. However, a social media audience tends to question, speculate, and make inappropriate requests, such as pressuring us to put out an Amber alert, even if the case clearly does not qualify for one. If we respond to these posts to educate and reassure people, we are distracted from the more important task of locating the missing person.

We rarely reveal information about a missing person case beyond providing a physical description and a very broad statement, such as “Deputies are concerned for Person’s name well-being.” If the person has dementia or is suicidal, he or she is entitled to medical privacy. If a person “snapped” under the weight of personal pressures, publically discussing those will do nothing to lessen that burden. A description of the person aids efforts to locate him or her; highly sensitive information does not. Any press release or social media post will remain on the Internet for all time. We want to minimize the impact of the crisis on the person’s future social relationships, employment opportunities, or political aspirations. The person’s current and long term well-being are more important than the curiosity of strangers.

Sometimes we receive suggestions in the comments on Facebook. People tell us to ask other jurisdictions to look for the license plate, check find my phone apps, alert the media, contact friends, or check the hospitals. Let me assure readers – these are all things we routinely do, and they are only the tip of the iceberg. This is not our first rodeo!

In one recent case, we had several convincing indicators the missing person voluntarily left his or her last known location in a vehicle. Multiple people wanted to know why we weren’t organizing a search party. What would that look like? Where would we start? On the ground grid searches certainly have their place; such as when a person with dementia wanders away from home on foot, when a small child slips away, or when a hiker gets lost in the woods. Those cases have a starting point, and we can establish reasonable search parameters. We do not have these in a runaway-type case, especially when the person has a vehicle.

We have three primary databases at our disposal. We always enter the missing person into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a system used by more than 80,000 agencies. If the person comes into contact with a law enforcement officer, a simple check will reveal the person’s status as missing and provide information about who to contact. This database is useful if the person ends up unconscious, at a hospital, in a car wreck, or if they surface asking for help.

Once entered into NCIC, there are two types of specialty alerts the investigating agency can pursue. Silver Alerts are used for missing and endangered people over age 65, or for a person with mental or cognitive disabilities (regardless of age) which place them at increased risk of harm. Amber Alerts are issued only when a person 17 years old or younger is believed to have been abducted and is not thought to be a runaway. The abduction must have been reported to and investigated by a law enforcement agency. Such alerts are issued only by the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons – we cannot issue one. If we apply and the case does not qualify, the application is immediately rejected, and we might see our credibility suffer – making it harder to justify future requests. Amber Alerts, by law, are only used in the rare cases that qualify for them. If they are overused, people will not give them the urgent attention they deserve.

If you need help finding a missing person, call us immediately. Tell us everything you know; we will protect sensitive information. Help us publicize the person’s description. Understand what Amber and Silver alerts are, and trust us to use them when appropriate.

My office is undergoing a systematic shift in how we envision our service to Orange County. This change is represented by a new organizational chart, one which places the employees working closest with the public at the top. This is a visual representation of my belief that the deputies and staff who have the most contact with the people we serve accomplish the bulk of our work seen by the community. They are, therefore, the face of the sheriff’s office, and placing them at the top reflects the important role they play in our agency.

This fundamental shift in our chart obviously means that the command staff and I are at the bottom of the chart. This positioning is intentional– it is a visual reminder that we are here to support the staff of the Sheriff’s Office as they go about their work.

A Sheriff’s Office provides many forms of service; in fact, it is more accurate to think of us as a comprehensive community support and safety agency than as just a law enforcement one. Our new chart also visually groups related functions into four main areas. These functional areas help highlight how “law enforcement” is too narrow of a term for the work we do.

A major leads each of the four divisions, as follows:

 Major Tina Sykes is the first female Major in the agency’s history. She leads the division responsible for Professional Standards/Training and Support Services. This division organizes the basic law enforcement academy for new cadets, arranges classes and tracks compliance with the yearly required in-service training for existing deputies, supervises the resource officers supporting the public school community, and oversees crime prevention and community outreach activities so vital in supporting special populations within our county.

 Major Tim Jones administers the Detention and Courts Division. Four shifts provide for around-the-clock care of the people ordered into our custody by the courts. He also has responsibility for the deputies providing security at our courthouses and for the team transporting inmates between other detention and medical facilities across the state. We will soon move into a new detention facility several miles north of the current jail; Major Jones will oversee this enormous transition, including orienting and training the staff for the new space, finalizing the acquisition of equipment and supplies, and planning for new procedures to transport inmates to court (the new facility is not directly across the street from the courthouse as the current one is).

 Major Nate Fearrington oversees the Patrol, Civil, and Administrative divisions. The patrol division has four shifts responding to 911 calls and proactively providing safety and security services to people and property within the county. Patrol deputies perform the duties most people envision when they hear the term “law enforcement officer.” Major Fearrington also has the responsibility for the vehicles, uniforms, and equipment these deputies need. Radios, body cameras, cell phones, and in-car computers continue to become exponentially more sophisticated; the logistics involved in maintaining and updating these systems are likewise more complicated.

The civil division serves all court papers, collects money, and carries out orders of the court, such as executing evictions, while the administrative division has a myriad of functions, including providing services to the public such as fingerprinting, record keeping, and processing weapons permits. Specialized members of this division also counsel domestic violence survivors, while others provide the complicated computer and information technology (IT) services needed by a modern agency.

 Major Josh Wood leads the teams responsible for criminal and narcotics investigations and the related duties of evidence collection and analysis. Related to these realms is the supervision and administration of the K9 unit, several state and federal multi-agency task forces, and the Special Response Team. The latter includes expertly trained and specially equipped officers who carry out high risk arrests and building entries, and use their experience in hostage and barricaded subject situations.

From our position at the lowest level of the agency organizational chart, the rest of the command staff focuses on delivering the support the majors need to enable the members of their respective divisions to maintain, elevate, and adapt our service to a constantly changing landscape. Our overarching goal is to build confidence in our primary roles as a public safety and community support agency; thus, we hope we can maintain the community’s trust when law enforcement actions are necessary.

We believe our new organizational chart better represents the operational efforts and structure we employ to guide this work and target our goals.

I am proud of my hardworking staff. Collectively, we strive to provide ethical, efficient, modern law enforcement to Orange County, and we focus on building relationships and providing excellent service. That hardworking staff includes our remarkable K9 unit, and I am excited to introduce them to you in this month’s edition of The Lowdown.

Our K9 unit includes three humans, two German Shepherds from Poland, and a Dutch Shepherd from the Czech Republic. All six team members are dedicated, enthusiastic, and committed, but frankly, the dogs have no idea they go to work. They are motivated by a simple desire to please their handlers and the chance to earn playtime with their favorite toys.

A K9 team attends a training school before they begin their patrol duties. It generally takes between 10 and 16 weeks for the team to complete school and “graduate.” The goal of this initial training is two part. The first is to begin creating a dog’s resume, documenting all training and usage records - these are what make a dog a police dog. A dog’s resume is used to establish probable cause for search warrants and to establish the dog’s legitimacy when criminal cases go to court. The second goal is to certify with a nationally recognized organization because there is no state level training certification available in North Carolina. We certify with the International Police Working Dog Association, which focuses on the working capabilities of the dog team, including off-lead obedience, article search for evidence, tracking, narcotics detection, searching buildings for suspects, and apprehension of persons of interest.

Once a team graduates from school, intensive training continues. Each team receives over 300 hours per year of training, primarily concentrated in weekly group training sessions. This session always includes all three teams, and they often train with K9 teams from other agencies. Each handler also completes additional training activities each work day to keep the dog’s skills sharp, build the handler’s confidence, and allow problem-solving opportunities. These all increase the likelihood the team will be able to navigate successfully the challenges that arise during their patrol shift.

K9 teams are an incredible asset to our agency. A dog’s powerful sense of smell helps locate people in building searches. Moreover, when the handler announces a dog is about to enter, often a suspect is so afraid of the dog that he or she will voluntarily come out of hiding. These dogs are also highly efficient. They can locate in minutes a stash of narcotics it might take human searchers hours to find. Using that same sense of smell, they are able to track a missing person or an individual who runs from a vehicle crash or investigative stop, even if the person runs into thick woods or underbrush. A human alone does not have that capability; the dog serves as a force multiplier.

These assets are absolutely worth their cost, which is between $7,000.00 and $10,000.00 per dog, plus $3,500.00 per dog for other initial costs, such as a kennels and special patrol vehicle safety systems. Ongoing costs are about $100.00 per year per dog to replace toys, leashes, and other training equipment. We also spend $1,500.00 annually for food, treats, yearly vaccinations, and preventative maintenance medication (wormer and flea and tick prevention) for each dog. If a dog gets injured or sick, there are additional vet fees.

I asked our handlers to describe our dogs. All agreed Callie, our Dutch Shepherd, is a very determined dog with a high drive to succeed. Not surprisingly, she is therefore our best tracking dog, despite the difficulty of this task. Time lapse, weather conditions, and scent contamination are factors that lead to a majority of tracks being unsuccessful, yet Callie completed one on her first night as a working dog!

Tres, one of our German shepherds, is also a terrific tracking dog. He got his name, which is the Spanish word for the number three, because it took that many tries to pair his handler with the right dog! Tres is the most social of our K9 team, and therefore a star at community events. Zar, our other German shepherd, has an incredibly sensitive nose and is determined to locate the source of the odors he detects. He once located over 200 pounds of marijuana.

If you have a chance to talk to our K9 handlers, please do. You will see their enthusiasm for their work and learn more about the incredible capabilities of their furry partners. But please remember - the dogs don’t know they have a job. Let’s keep that a secret!