AG Josh Stein holds roundtable discussion with local law enforcement, DSS personnel

ROCKINGHAM — On the heels of a series of groundbreaking legal settlements with opioid manufacturers and pharmaceutical distributors, North Carolina Attorney General and current gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein recently met with local law enforcement, human services professionals and criminal justice representatives at the Rockingham Police Department on Wednesday.

On the docket for Stein — a discussion regarding local law enforcement efforts to successfully recruit and retain qualified officers and an illustration of the current state of the opioid crisis in Richmond and surrounding counties.

Officer recruitment and retention

Stein opened the round table event by asking Laurinburg Chief of Police, Mitch Johnson, Rockingham Chief of Police, George Gillenwater and Assistant Chief, Richard Greene, about current vacancies, and staffing levels.

“How much time do you have for the discussion,” Johnson said in jest. He said that the Laurinburg Police Department has always tried to maintain the highest levels of professionalism when recruiting potential officers. “We try to make sure, again, first of all that we are looking for good officers, trying to make sure that within those pools of officers that we do receive, we try to make sure that we are making the right choices for our respective locations,” Johnson said.

Johnson expressed concerns with being unable to compensate Basic Law Enforcement Training candidates in Laurinburg.

“Personally, in my agency, I do not have the opportunity to pay individuals while they are in BLET training. There are many agencies, once you sponsor someone and they get to that BLET, someone else may be able to encourage them by getting paid going through that process, so I am currently trying to look at how we can better be able to reach that by getting the HR departments to be able to pay individuals as they go through the BLET program with some type of incentive,” Johnson said.

Johnson also said it is difficult to compete with departments offering initial sign-on bonuses for new prospective officers.

Chief Gillenwater of the Rockingham Police Department, on the other hand, has been able to procure funds to pay for officers going through BLET.

“We have focused our attention on recruiting and hiring and paying these kids to go through BLET from Richmond County, which sort of lessons the blow,” Gillenwater said. He also said his department has been able to do salary evaluations as a point of comparison to surrounding agencies, resulting in increased salaries for officers in his department.

Chief Gillenwater portrayed a cultural change in the Rockingham Police Department to AG Stein. “Also, culturally when we took over, I think we sort of changed the format of this sort of military hierarchy structure, to operate more as family owned and operated business. We try to communicate with each and every employee on a daily basis. I know them, they know me — very open door policy and I think that shift in cultures has helped,” he said.

AG Stein asked Chief Johnson and Chief Gillenwater about their current department manning.

According to Johnson, the Laurinburg Police Department is at capacity when staffed with 43 officers, but the department currently has nine vacancies. Chief Gillenwater said that until last week the Rockingham Police Department was fully staffed at 36 but had just lost an officer.

AG Stein said that the state is looking at a public education campaign for officers that are out of state, in an attempt to sell them on the benefits of transitioning to a North Carolina department. He introduced the Criminal Justice Fellows Program that doesn’t necessarily pay for two years of a community college associate degree up front, but does lend an individual the money and if they work in law enforcement for four years, the debt is absolved. These potential officers are not earning an actual salary while in school, but their tuition will effectively be free upon completion of their obligation.

Stein said that across the state, departments are heavily staffed with officers that have been on the job for one or two years and officers that are 25 years or more in, but those departments are finding short falls in the five to ten-year window.

Stein posited a plan across the state, recognizing how stressful and mentally taxing law enforcement is, and providing mental health resources for officers, incentivizing them to stick around. Furthermore, Stein wants to see a premium placed on training and educational opportunities within departments, so officers have more options as they progress along the career ladder.

Chief Gillenwater and Chief Johnson reported a considerable interest from officers outside of North Carolina that want to transition departments. Unfortunately, they said, many of the BLET program training pipelines do not line up, such that officers cannot seamlessly transition to North Carolina. Gillenwater suggested having potential transfers take the North Carolina state law block of BLET instruction, so officers understand state laws and then allow them to transfer departments.

Richmond County Schools Director of Auxiliary Services, Melvin Ingram, echoed many of the chiefs’ concerns regarding manning considering that the school system is frequently short on school resource officers.

AG stein asked Ingraham if the schools utilize local deputies. Ingraham said they use Hamlet and Rockingham Police Department officers, but that there is still a staffing challenge.

“We have safety grant money and things like that, but we can’t even use that money because there are no people, so it just creates a huge challenge for the school system,” Ingram said.

Opioid Epidemic

“I assume you have all heard about the new wave of settlements that are coming,” Stein said. “You know we had the first wave that we resolved a year and a half ago — two years ago for the first $26 billion, now we’ve got another $27-28 billion and essentially its going to end up doubling the amount of money coming to Richmond County and I think that the amount is now going to be $8.7 million. Of course, it’s desperately needed.”

He continued, “…It’s your DSS that has to deal with it, it’s your public health departments that have to deal with it, it’s your jails that are filling with people, it’s your foster care system, it’s your schools. All of you are the ones that have to respond to the crisis, it’s your EMS that has to go to the calls, so we want you to have the resources to respond effectively.”

Stein asked the panel what the county plans for the soon to be allocated funds would be.

Richmond County Director of Social Services, Robbie Hall, highlighted the efforts of the Drug Endangered Family Task Force, which since 2017 has tracked substance affected infants. Hall said the organization monitors the drugs found in babies and mothers at the time of birth so the county can determine if the percentage is a significant portion of the county birth rate.

According to Hall, every month, four to six births in the county are substance positive. Hall said these substance affected infants have greatly exacerbated the number of children in foster care.

“We have 19 infants for example in foster care, they are all substance affected. For a small county like ours, because it’s done a number on our system too, normally we would have about 34-35 kids in foster care, we are roughly at 115 in foster care right now due to closures for mental health facilities, group homes and substance affected infants,” Hall said.

Previously, young infants would not end up in foster care, family members would provide care, but Hall says that the prevalence of addiction in parents has broken ties with families to the extent that a much larger percentage of children end up in Department of Social Service care.

According to Hall, DSS buildings have become housing solutions for displaced children. “At any one time we can do a survey across North Carolina, there’s about 50 kids living in DSS buildings or hotels without mental health or treatment providers, and that’s every day,” Hall said.

Richmond County Public Health Director Cheryl Speight said housing juveniles at DSS has placed a tremendous burden on county employees. “You can’t just have volunteers; they have to be employees. They are working regular jobs and then covering weekends, holidays, and nights, and then you have to have meals for these kids, three meals a day,” she said.

AG Stein asked how the facilities are managing to shoulder the enormous responsibility,

“Small communities solve problems, we have partnerships with many of our churches, with the soup kitchens, so they are making meals and bringing them every day,” Hall said. Unfortunately, the additional responsibilities, according to Hall, have amplified employee turnover.

“We have had 85% turnover with our employees and staff, and I had two resignations yesterday. They did not sign up to work 24 hours a day,” Hall said.

Despite funding from sources like the Sandhills Center, Hall said kids staying at DSS simply aren’t able to receive the requisite services they need. Providers have continually refused placements for kids considered too acute or too high risk based on mental health issues, violence, and suicidal ideations.

AG stein asked Hall how Richmond County is administering funds from the grant programs on opioids.

Hall said the county is releasing $150,000 in at least $50,000 grants for any local nonprofit, law enforcement or other organization to help curb the scourge of opioid use. Additionally, the county is pulling money to develop and supply a Narcan repository, as other sources of funding for Narcan have dried up, Hall said.

Hall suggested the Attorney General’s Office look at current testing protocols for substance affected infants. “Right now, hospitals test the mother first,” Hall said, but “What our research has shown is that the majority of the time, over 65% of the time, even if the mother was negative in the test, the baby was positive, so it should be a reversed test.”

In closing, Attorney General Stein said, “’Y’all do such important work for your communities, it’s not easy work but it is impactful and makes a difference in the lives of your neighbors and I could not be more grateful. It’s hard, but my gosh, thank you.”

Based on recent opioid settlement figures, counties will receive:

Richmond: $8.7 million

Anson: $2.1 million

Scotland: $5.2 million