Read enough news articles from across the state or country, and you will inevitably see a journalist refer to the Sheriff’s Office as the Sheriff’s Department.
You may have a situation where you believe the county manager should tell the sheriff what to do. Or you may hear someone demand that county commissioners make the sheriff change a policy or the way his office operates.
There is just one problem with that line of thought.
That isn’t how the Office of Sheriff works in North Carolina.
The sheriff is not a department head hired by county government. He is an elected constitutional officer, chosen directly by the citizens of the county.
That may sound like a technical distinction in terminology.
It isn’t.
An Office Created by the Constitution
Article VII, Section 2 of the North Carolina Constitution states that a sheriff shall be elected in every county by the qualified voters of that county and shall serve a four-year term.
Think about the significance of that for a moment.
The county manager doesn’t hire the sheriff. The county commissioners don’t hire the sheriff. The sheriff doesn’t serve at the pleasure of either one.
You hire the sheriff.
Every four years, the voters decide who will exercise the authority of that office.
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association goes so far as to point out that referring to a “Sheriff’s Department” is technically incorrect. Its publication The Office of Sheriff in North Carolina states plainly that there is no such entity as a sheriff’s department in North Carolina.
There is an Office of Sheriff.
That distinction exists for a reason.
A Department Has a Boss
Consider the normal structure of county government.
A county may have departments responsible for finance, information technology, parks and recreation, and numerous other functions.
Those departments generally have directors or department heads who are appointed rather than elected. They exist within an administrative chain of command. They report to the county manager, who is appointed by the county commissioners.
The sheriff is different. The sheriff answers to the citizens who elect him.
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association makes an interesting comparison: Calling the Sheriff’s Office a “Sheriff’s Department” would be much like referring to the Office of Governor as the “Department of Governor.”
We don’t do that because the governor isn’t the director of a state department.
The governor occupies an elected office.
So does the sheriff.
And North Carolina’s highest court has recognized that distinction.
In Young v. Bailey, the North Carolina Supreme Court stated that “a sheriff’s office is not a program or department of a county.”
That isn’t merely tradition or a preference among sheriffs about what should be printed on the side of a patrol car or in a news release.
It is the structure of the office.
Who Runs the Sheriff’s Office?
The sheriff does.
North Carolina law gives an elected sheriff the exclusive authority to hire, fire, and supervise the employees of his office. Every employee works at the pleasure of the sheriff, meaning they can generally be discharged without cause.
That means county commissioners don’t hire deputy sheriffs. The county manager doesn’t supervise them. And neither gets to decide which deputy should be promoted, disciplined, or fired.
Those personnel decisions belong to the elected sheriff.
And there is a good reason for that.
Imagine the alternative.
Suppose five county commissioners could determine which deputies a sheriff was allowed to hire, which ones he could fire, or how those deputies were supervised.
The sheriff might still appear on the ballot every four years, but the independence of the office would mean very little.
The voters would supposedly be choosing the person responsible for the Sheriff’s Office while someone else exercised control over the people actually carrying out its duties.
The sheriff is responsible for the service of civil processes in North Carolina, which is carried out by his deputies. They must sign his name certifying service within the applicable time requirements for each process. The sheriff must have full authority over those delegated to act on his behalf.
The sheriff even has to post a monetary bond at the beginning of his term to ensure those duties are carried out properly by those he has chosen to act on his behalf.
The County Commissioners Are Not Powerless
Saying that a sheriff is an independently elected officer does not mean the sheriff can simply do whatever he wants.
The sheriff is not a king.
He remains subject to the Constitution, state and federal law, the courts, other legal limitations on his authority and, most importantly, the citizens who elect him.
County commissioners also retain an enormously important power: the power of the purse.
County government provides funding for the Sheriff’s Office. Commissioners adopt the county budget and have statutory authority concerning matters such as the number of salaried employees in the office.
A sheriff cannot simply announce that he wants 20 additional deputies and order the county to produce the money.
But controlling the appropriation of county money is different from controlling the internal operation of the Sheriff’s Office.
That distinction can sometimes create tension.
A sheriff may need additional deputies, equipment, or funding. In the case of Halifax County, a new jail and office.
Commissioners may believe the county cannot afford it or that the money would be better spent elsewhere.
Both sides may have legitimate arguments.
That disagreement doesn’t make the sheriff subordinate to the commissioners any more than the sheriff’s independent authority allows him to dictate the county budget.
They have different responsibilities and different sources of authority.
Understanding that distinction is important.
Who Does the Sheriff Answer To?
Simply put, the voters.
The sheriff answers to the citizens who elected him.
That doesn’t mean an election is the only legal mechanism by which a sheriff can ever be removed, though. North Carolina law provides procedures for removal for cause in appropriate circumstances.
But ordinary political accountability is different from employment supervision.
If citizens believe their sheriff is doing an excellent job, they re-elect him.
If they believe he is running the office poorly, setting the wrong priorities, enforcing the law improperly, or failing to serve their county in its best interest, they can elect someone else.
The county manager doesn’t make that decision for them.
Neither do the county commissioners.
The voters do.
And that is one of the reasons understanding the distinction between an office and a department matters.
The words reflect the structure of government.
A sheriff works with county commissioners. His office depends upon county government for funding. Cooperation between the Sheriff’s Office, county manager, and commissioners is obviously beneficial to everyone they serve.
But cooperation should not be confused with subordination.
The sheriff isn’t simply another name on the county government’s organizational chart beneath the county manager.
He occupies an office established by the North Carolina Constitution and entrusted directly to him by the voters.
So, the next time someone asks why the county manager doesn’t simply tell the sheriff what to do, or why the commissioners don’t make him run his office differently, remember:
They didn’t hire him.
You did.
