Sheriff gets more manpower
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 2, 2015 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved the hiring of four new deputies for the Sheriff's Office.
The positions will enable the department to aggressively tackle property crimes in the county, Sheriff Larry Pierce said.
The OK to hire the deputies came on the heels of the board's recent planning session during which commissioners held a lengthy discussion on how the county could address what they called an "alarming crime rate," particularly break-ins and property crimes.
"Our property crimes are always a major problem, but that sort of stems from other things too, which is drug and gang activity, (all of which) lead to property crimes," Pierce said. "It all meshes together."
The planning session was followed by a meeting between County Manager George Wood, board Chairman Wayne Aycock and Pierce.
Aycock said he wanted to make it clear that he and Wood had called the meeting with the sheriff to ask what the board could do to help.
"He did not come in requesting all four positions. He just told us what his needs are," Aycock said. "We feel like this is a step in the right direction to help combat crime in Wayne County."
"He recommended areas where he could use more manpower to address this issue," Wood said.
One of those involves gang investigations, Pierce said.
Sgt. Matt Miller works with the FBI task force targeting violent gangs operating in this region.
"He is assigned to the task force and is doing a great job trying to combat our gang violence and link gang violence with some of the other crimes that we're having. But it shortens me one detective," Pierce pointed out.
Pierce asked that he be allowed to promote from within his department to fill the vacant detective slot. He would then also promote a deputy to corporal. The corporal, along with two additional deputies, would then be assigned to the sheriff's office Aggressive Crime Enforcement or ACE Team. Their mission is to target specific areas of the county where certain crimes -- property crimes among them -- are more prevalent.
Wood offered the commissioners two options. First, hire the detective and defer the other three positions until next year, or second, fund all four officers this year, Wood said.
"The agreement we have worked out with the sheriff is that we will pay for the salaries, benefits and equipping the officers," Wood said. "He will use his discretionary funds to pay for the vehicles."
The sheriff's discretionary fund is money from drug seizures and can be used to purchase equipment and to pay for training.
Pierce estimates the total costs of the new hires will be about $250,000.
Given the minimal financial impact, and the need for the manpower, Wood recommended that the commissioners hire all four officers this budget year.
The additional three ACE Team slots will allow the sheriff to operate the team on two shifts instead of one, maximizing coverage in the county where property crimes -- break-ins, larcenies, armed robberies and personal crimes -- are up.
The next goal has to be getting the community involved, the sheriff said.
Pierce said community and church leaders in several communities -- although he would not say which ones -- have been showing interest recently in coming together to form a "united front" against crime. Pierce said there is a grassroots movement under way to take back these communities from criminals and to bring back a sense of community for residents.
That begins with the residents in the communities showing a willingness to report crime, he said.
"If you see something, you say something," Pierce said.
Commissioner Joe Daughtery said that a recent break-in at his home brought the issue home for him.
"It is sad to say that we see these (crime) reports coming to us, and we don't really realize the effect this has on an individual when they are a victim to property crimes," he said. "I recognize, and everybody recognizes, that a lot of property crimes are related to drug activities. But when I got this last report and it indicated that in the first six months of this year the property crimes, the break-ins, in Wayne County was 663 break-ins, that means 663 families had their homes broken into in Wayne County.
"It affects you not only from the fact of when the break-in occurs. It is residual. You feel like you are violated. It is not the property that you have lost, it is the fact that we all feel like we live in our homes and we should have peace and enjoyment there."
Daughtery said the "startling" thing to him in the report was that only 35 arrests were made.
"Crime pays in Wayne County, and we have got to stop that," he said. "So whatever resources we need give you and your department to stop it, we need to do so.
"My concern is that once we have this investigator and deputies -- that task force, I want it to hone in and actually be dedicated specifically for property crimes, breaking and enterings. I don't want them to be shifted over to anything else. I just hope you will charge this group to do whatever is necessary to hold down and catch these criminals. Let's build the jail big enough to make sure they pay for these property crimes."
Commissioner Ed Cromartie agreed with Daughtery and said that he supports whatever is needed to protect the public. He also praised Pierce for "having the nerve" to admit there are gang problems in the county.
Pierce said he wanted commissioners to know that the next report they receive might not show much difference statistically.
"We are going to actively pursue the problem we have in Wayne County," the sheriff said. "But I will tell you there is not a line of demarcation between drugs and property crime. They are intertwined. Until we can stop the need for cash we are going to continue to have property crimes."
Property crimes are the hardest crime to solve because of the "fluidity" as the property moves, he explained.
"If you have a crime involving a person, most time you have a witness," Pierce said. "Most property crimes we do not.
"I promise you we will attack it aggressively."