This article was originally published by Carolina Public Press.
By Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press
Carolina Public Press is an independent, in-depth and investigative nonprofit news service for North Carolina.
North Carolina’s 100 sheriffs have wide-ranging jobs. As part of their vow to maintain law and order, they oversee county detention facilities, investigate crimes, patrol the community, enforce traffic laws and serve court documents.
But once sheriffs get elected, voters rarely remove them from office. Often, they face no serious competition. In North Carolina, primary elections decide most contests.
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This year, nearly a third of counties will hold general elections for sheriff. In 24, the current sheriff is running.
Across the state, incumbent sheriffs are highlighting their experience, while challengers are asking for change, transparency and greater visibility in the community.
‘Rinse. Repeat.’
After a 14-year run as Chatham County sheriff, Democrat Richard Webster passed the torch to Democrat Mike Roberson in 2016. In the next election, Roberson kept the appointed seat. Earlier this year, Roberson decided to leave the office, and pushed for his chief deputy, Steve Maynor, to replace him.
Now, Maynor faces Republican Marcus Globuschutz in November’s sheriff election. Globuschutz, a probation and parole officer with the Department of Adult Corrections with 32 years of law enforcement experience, said the pattern of handing down the sheriff’s role through mid-cycle appointments isn’t working for the citizens.
“It’s the same rinse and repeat; it’s the same thing over and over again,” he said. “It’s not getting any better. It’s actually getting worse. So, with that being said, the citizens of Chatham County deserve a change.”
According to Globuschutz, sheriffs staying in power for years on end leads to complacency. It’s difficult to get in touch with the office and get questions answered. He feels like the sheriff is focused more on image than solving property crimes or addressing drug issues.
In Wilson County, two newcomers are vying for an open seat: Republican Bobby Knight and Democrat Brandon Barbrey.
Democratic Sheriff Calvin Woodard is stepping down after 16 years. While Barbrey has worked at the Sheriff’s Office in various capacities since 2011, Knight has been working in neighboring Nash County’s Sheriff’s Office.
Knight said Barbrey is “part of the machine,” and will be a continuation of Woodard’s reign.
“He’s kind of running on the idea that there’s nothing wrong with the Sheriff’s Office, and there needs to be no changes,” Knight said. “When, in my belief, I think everything needs to go through a change at least once, or there is always room for improvement somewhere.”
Beaufort County Democrat Corey Dixon also feels a need for change. Dixon, former Gaston police chief, gang drug investigator and patrol officer, said he feels like he has more “on-the-job” experience than his opponent, first-term Republican Sheriff Scott Hammonds.
“All the sheriffs that before me just talk about what they do to stop the overdoses and to get drugs off the street, but what kind of programs are they implementing to help keep people from being repeat offenders or helping them get away from the addiction that they have?”
Sheriffs fighting drugs
While Chowan County’s drug overdoses are slowing down, they’re still happening, said Republican Sheriff Edward Basnight.
“I’d love to sit here and say we’ll have it eradicated completely one day, but I don’t know that that’s even possible,” he said. “But we keep fighting to fight as much as we can to protect our children from those drugs.”
If reelected, Basnight wants to make their collaboration with the State Bureau of Investigation official and permanently assign drug investigators. Due to staffing issues and the need to cover patrol spots first, it’s been difficult to fully address other issues. But he sees a light at the end of the tunnel; after a few more law enforcement training sessions, they’ll be fully staffed again, Basnight said.
Across North Carolina, law enforcement recruitment and retention has been a struggle recently. Basnight said state lawmakers can help by sending money to local law enforcement, not just state agencies.
While officers will get a one-time $1,750 bonus in the recently passed budget, Basnight thinks they need something more long-term to keep them serving in an environment where everything they do is criticized by the community.
Addressing the drug issue takes more than arresting people, said Person County Democrat Dennis Allen, who is running for sheriff against current Republican Sheriff Jason Wilborn.
Allen worked in the Sheriff’s Office for three decades before retiring in 2024. After he left, he didn’t like the direction things were going in Wilborn’s first term. When it seemed like Wilborn would run unopposed, Allen decided to throw his hat into the ring.
“With all the years’ experience that I have, I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything,” Allen said.
If elected, he said he would set up a reentry program where jail inmates get mental health support from local facilities while serving time and when they get out. He hopes that would lower the number of repeat offenders.
Globuschutz wants to establish a city-county drug task force in Chatham County if elected. He said they would try to work with state and federal partners as much as possible to ease the local burden.
He agrees that arrests alone won’t solve the root of the problem for many offenders who suffer from mental health issues.
“So those who are addicted, we need to come up with some type of diversion program,” he said. “But if you’re selling drugs in this county, selling the poison that’s killing these people, they deserve to be in prison. Period.”
Visibility of sheriffs
Since school started, Basnight has been at the high school every morning, greeting students. He wants them to know that he’s there, and have a positive relationship with his deputies. They’re not just cops; they are humans, too.
“Now they’re seeing us in uniform, and the kids are recognizing us, and then the parents are wanting to talk to us a little bit,” Basnight said. “We’ve been doing that for several years now, and it’s really been a very successful program for us.”
Several would-be sheriffs expressed a desire for the office and its deputies to be more involved in the community they serve, in good and bad times.
When Democrat Ty Rucker was a sheriff’s deputy in Richmond County under then-Sheriff James Clemmons, they were always out in the community.
“He didn’t want us in the shadows,” Rucker said. “He wanted us out in the school system, talking to the kids, meeting the parents, grandparents in low stress settings. So whenever the time came, people would know who you were.”
If something bad happened, citizens would remember who the deputies were and, ideally, feel comfortable enough to give them information to help solve crimes, Rucker explained.
But after Clemmons died in 2021, Republican Sheriff Mark Gulledge replaced him. Rucker feels like “the torch that he was carrying has been dropped.”
Rucker said he still gets calls about things happening in Richmond County, even though he left the office after two decades in 2024. In between working two jobs, he makes sure to be at community events, connecting with Richmond County residents. He’s heard a lot of complaints about people not feeling like they know the deputies the way they once did, he said.
Now is voters’ opportunity to choose something different, Rucker said.
Nash County Democrat David Brake feels similarly after retiring from the Sheriff’s Office in 2020. While he doesn’t have an issue with current Republican Sheriff Keith Stone, he said he’s not as “community-oriented” as Brake would be.
“I will make sure that citizens know our deputies, and our deputies know our citizens, and I think that would establish more trust between law enforcement and citizens,” he said.
These days, visibility for sheriffs happens both in person and online. That’s why Knight wants the Sheriff’s Office to get on Facebook and Instagram if elected. That’s where people get their news, and it would go a long way toward transparency, he said.
“I want to invite the public in a lot more than what we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” Knight said.
