Buncombe approves sheriff's Downtown Asheville patrols partially targeting homeless
ASHEVILLE – The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved funding for sheriff’s deputies to patrol Downtown Asheville on Fridays and Saturdays.
By approving the funds during their Jan. 16 meeting, commissioners heeded a request from nearly 40 Asheville business owners who sent a letter to city and county officials in September requesting increased public safety presence. While the letter did not blame danger in Asheville on any particular group, multiple passages focused on people experiencing homelessness, using the term "vagrants."
William Dissen, owner of The Marketplace Restaurant on Wall Street, Billy D’s Fried Chicken and Little Gem, coordinated the letter and the campaign for increased public safety downtown. In December, he declined multiple Citizen Times requests for comment, saying that he wanted to wait until the commissioners decided on the allocation to speak about the matter. Dissen did not respond to a request to comment the morning before the meeting.
Members of the sheriff’s office and the county commission met with these business owners and their employees throughout the fall. The request to increase patrols downtown was a response to the letter and those conversations.
“The problems experienced include assaults, robberies, break ins, damage to property, disorderly conduct, and more,” read the request for board action, borrowing language from a December sheriff’s office report delivered to commissioners. “The Sheriff’s Office agrees with the concerned parties. The environment created by some of the homeless individuals frequenting the business district is unacceptable.”
Funding will last 26 weeks, paying for two pairs of deputies to patrol downtown on Fridays and Saturday between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. The disbursement will also allow one sheriff’s office staff member to work in the county’s Real Time Intelligence Center.
Why is county law enforcement patrolling in city limits?
Sheriff Quentin Miller said at the meeting that he expects the Asheville Police Department to eventually collaborate on the effort that he coined the “Downtown Initiative.” This is different from Asheville's Downtown Safety Initiative, a 60-day effort that began April 20, 2023, resulting in a visible downtown police presence.
This initiative will either cost the county $88,000 or $56,000 — commissioners voted to approve the lesser. The price tag will ultimately be lower if the Asheville Police Department deploys officers to partner with deputies to patrol. Buncombe County will use extra funds initially committed to school resource officers to pay for the effort ― schools did not ultimately need the amount initially allocated. Commission Chair Brownie Newman did not attend the meeting because of a personal matter.
More: Downtown crime dips: APD targeted operations, police presence, $2 million in overtime
More: Downtown Safety Initiative: APD reports an increase in both violent and property crime
The sheriff’s office is providing a presence downtown while the police department continues with its staffing struggles, Miller said. Once APD has enough staff, the sheriff’s department will withdraw. According to a December Citizen Times report, APD staffing is currently down 38%.
More: Asheville Interim Chief Lamb talks new APD focus, 'surprise' retirement, staffing issues
“I’m optimistic that a deputy presence during the late evening hours will help alleviate the safety concerns that many of our service workers and business owners have raised,” Commissioner Martin Moore said in a statement to the Citizen Times after the meeting.
“I think it’s important to recognize that we can focus on deterrence and crime prevention while also committing to strategies that will help address root causes of crime.”
Moore, a former public defender, is running for the state’s Court of Appeals. He received an endorsement from Miller.
Miller said at the Jan. 16 meeting that deputies will take on overtime assignments to staff the initiative, assuring the public that the effort will not detract from sheriff’s office presence outside of downtown.
Miller drew a distinction from APD’s “special operations,” when police recently targeted low-level offenses, like second-degree trespass, panhandling and possessing drug paraphernalia. A majority of the people listed one of these operations listed a local homeless services center as their permanent address.
“We’re simply saying we want (to patrol) downtown as a presence,” Miller said. “If there’s a crime committed in our presence, of course we take appropriate actions.”
He said the sheriff’s office's goal was to meet people where they were and give deliver the assistance they need.
The Citizen Times attempted to ask Miller follow-up questions after his presentation, but he did not take any questions. Spokesperson Christina Esmay did not respond to questions Jan. 16 the Citizen Times emailed, which included whether the sheriff’s office would make arrests for misdemeanor offenses.
Miller said he wanted the flexibility to change the hours depending on what deputies encounter downtown and what he hears from business owners. He said that the sheriff’s office has data to support where he believes their presence is needed. Miller did not present any of that data during the meeting, nor did any commissioners ask for it.
He distinguished the downtown initiative from the sheriff’s office co-responder model, which partners a sheriff’s deputy with a health care professional and is currently operating full-time at a small scale. Miller said he aspires to grow that program and marry it with the sheriff’s office downtown presence.
More: Buncombe Sheriff proposes downtown patrols after restaurateurs and hoteliers ask for help
More: How many people are homeless in Asheville? 2024 point-in-time count begins Jan. 30
Commissioner Amanda Edwards commended Miller and the sheriff’s office for taking into consideration thoughts from downtown business owners. Edwards is running for the board’s top seat.
Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, who is a member of the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee’s shelter work group, described the increased patrols as the latest component of county, city and homeless services providers' multi-faceted approach to addressing homelessness. She pointed to the community paramedic, co-responder and justice services programs as examples of the work the county has done.
In December, the sheriff’s office submitted a report to the county board, laying out a four-stage plan to address homelessness in Buncombe County. To create that document, the sheriff's office did not consult a group of county representatives, city officials and local organizations that have collaborated for years to overhaul the area’s homelessness response system, the Citizen Times previously reported.
Esmay did not respond to questions about whether the Sheriff’s office spoke to these representatives as they developed their plan to patrol Downtown Asheville.
Asheville’s Homeless Strategy Division Manager Emily Ball told the Citizen Times in a Jan. 16 email that she would meet with representatives from the sheriff’s office Jan. 17. In December, she said in an email that she did not know about the sheriff’s office report until the Citizen Times sent it to her Dec. 19.
Miller did not mention the report during his presentation.
In a statement released through a spokesperson following the commissioner’s approval, Miller said that he intends for patrols to begin Jan. 26. Within 90 days from the beginning of the initiative, he said he would ensure that data and an assessment from the effort was available to the media and the public.
In other county news
Commissioners unanimously approved a raise for county elections director Corinne Duncan, increasing her salary by nearly $6,000 to $115,000 per year.
Commissioners unanimously accepted an external audit conducted by Atlanta-based accounting firm Mauldin & Jenkins. The auditor issued a clean opinion on the county’s major statements.
Commissioners unanimously approved $684,061 funding granted by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to develop its public health workforce. The county will need to use the funds by October 2027.
Mitchell Black covers Buncombe County and health care for the Citizen Times. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @MitchABlack. Please help support local journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville sheriff patrol funding approved to partially target homeless
