Answer Man: Should Asheville police, Buncombe Sheriff's Office be combined?

Today's burning question involves the efficiency of Asheville's and Buncombe County's law enforcement services and recruiting efforts. Have a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: With the staff shortages in both the Asheville City Police Department and the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, has there been any discussion regarding combining the two systems to increase overall efficiency related to job responsibilities?

Answer: While both Asheville police and the county sheriff's office have experienced understaffing, the number of empty spots at APD has historically been larger, and that agency is feeling a heavier weight from it.

As of mid-July, APD reported a sworn officer shortage hovering around 40%. The department did not respond to a request for comment Dec. 6 for this column, but it’s safe to say that the issue hasn’t gone away. It’s rare that understaffing and its effects don’t come up during the city’s monthly Public Safety Committee meetings, which are all about making policy decisions for agencies like the police department.

As of July 13, 184 of 238 sworn officer positions were filled at the Asheville Police Department.

By contrast, 361 of 435 positions are filled at the sheriff’s office as of Dec. 6, meaning there’s a 17% vacancy rate.

“We certainly hope to get closer to full staffing so as to ease the burden on our hard-working deputies and detectives, but we are not short-staffed in the sense that we are not fulfilling our duties,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Aaron Sarver told me.

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In July, Chief David Zack told me that “there’s no question” that understaffing is affecting the level of service the department provides.

It’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison since the Sheriff’s Office takes on work that APD does not, including staffing the courthouse and the jail.

For example, 41 of the 74 vacant positions at the Sheriff’s Office are in the detention division – the largest division – that oversees the county jail.

“While our staffing has improved in detention over the past six-eight months, like all correctional facilities in North Carolina, we continue to struggle to recruit for these positions,” Sarver said. “The job market and cost of living in Asheville/Buncombe County create additional challenges compared to other parts of the state.”

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As far as combining the two agencies: that “isn’t on the table,” Sarver said. He wasn’t aware of anyone advocating for a full merge.

But the two law enforcement agencies do share some responsibilities and resources. Sarver noted that the Sheriff’s Office answers dispatch calls and writes down the report. And the two agencies sometimes collaborate on investigations.

This reader might take interest in something tangentially related: Asheville’s pilot program to address homelessness and substance abuse. It’s still early in the works, but it’s being modeled after Buncombe County’s own community paramedicine program.

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The scope of the program is still being defined, but it would see city employees connect people in need to resources and help them in other ways. Police have spent much of their time responding to those calls for service, and this multi-disciplinary team of city employees is intended, in part, to create a better response, Asheville Fire Chief Scott Burnette has said. The fire department is the project manager.

“Our pilot program is proposed to have a multidisciplinary team, and that will complement Buncombe County’s efforts and other partners’ to not only respond, but most importantly, be proactive to address our community safety and quality of life issues … before they escalate,” he said at a public safety committee meeting in November.

The vast majority of calls that Buncombe County’s own paramedicine team responds to are in Asheville, Buncombe County Community Paramedic Program Manager Claire Hubbard has said.

The city and county also consolidated their 911 call centers early this year. That was years in the making, and was done in an effort to improve response times.

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Question: I have heard that the Asheville Police Department has put some money into a recruiting campaign. Have they seen any increase in applications but more importantly in actual hirings?

Answer: In part with a $225,000, two-year contract with Epic Recruiting, APD is hoping to make a dent in understaffing over the next several years. Epic’s role in that is managing a digital campaign to get eyes on job listings.

A 20-day “snapshot” presented at an October public safety meeting showed that APD drew the attention of more than 300 people, who clicked to go to the recruitment website. A handful of people applied in that 20 days, Capt. Brandon Moore said.

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“This is additive,” City Manager Debra Campbell said at the time. “It’s not our only effort at recruitment.”

The recruitment effort will span years, Zack has said, and he anticipated that the department would be able to give a fuller look at the data by the end of the year.

It’s worth noting that Zack has said that Epic is only a piece of a larger puzzle. In July, he told me that pay and benefits were also something. Locally, the department has closed the gap, but APD is competing with agencies around the country, he said.

Ryan Oehrli is the public safety reporter for the Citizen Times. Questions? Comments? Tips? Send them to coehrli@citizentimes.com. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville police and Buncombe County Sheriff understaffing a concern?