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Wait-and-see

JACKSON – Northampton County Sheriff Jack Smith said he is not sure how or if his department will be impacted by President Barack Obama’s Executive Action on gun control.

In a nationally broadcast speech Jan. 5, Obama announced that he is requiring all gun sellers to get federal licenses to sell guns and that all purchasers of guns would be required to undergo background checks.

The president’s executive order is designed to close loopholes in existing laws to ensure that criminals and potentially violent people with mental illnesses cannot readily purchase firearms.

Hertford County Sheriff Juan Vaughan also said he is not sure how or if the president’s executive order would impact his department or other law enforcement agencies.

Vaughan said he would like to investigate the new rules before commenting on them.

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Sheriff’s Office to Hold Citizens Academy

Moore County Sheriff Neil Godfrey announced Wednesday that he will hold the Moore Cofirst session of the Moore County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy from March 1 through April 12 this year.

The Citizens Academy is a seven-week interactive program designed for citizens throughout Moore County to learn more about the daily duties and functions of the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies.

The academy will begin on Tuesday, March 1 and meet each Tuesday night from 6-9 p.m. at the Rick Rhyne Public Safety Center. A graduation ceremony will be held on April 12.

Participants will be exposed to the many different aspects of the Sheriff’s Office and the criminal justice system. They will hear presentations from the Sheriff, the District Attorney, Patrol Division, Criminal and Narcotics Division representatives, agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and others.

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Iredell County Sheriff handles influx of gun permit applications

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said his Gunsoffice has seen an increase in applications for conceal and purchase permits.

“So much so that we are going to have to use flex scheduling and some overtime money to get our pistol permits and conceal permits streamlined into fashion,” he said.

Campbell said he believes he’s seeing more applications for two reason.

North Carolina House Bill 562 changed several state gun laws. Among other things, it allowed more people to be eligible for conceal carry permits.

“Along with that the national climate, people who worried about if are they going to be able to possess their firearms,” Campbell said.

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Henderson County Sheriff gets 2 new K-9 pups

PuppyHENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office has two new puppies to join its K-9 corps.

The sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday that two 10-week-old, female bloodhounds are joining the department and will be trained to locate missing people and to track suspects.

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Demand for concealed carry permits grows in North Carolina

GREENSBORO — Look around North Carolina. If you’re with a group of Concealed20 or more people, chances are one of them is carrying a handgun.

Since 1995, when the state gave the general public the right to carry concealed handguns, a half-million people exercised that right.

Much of this surge is among women, who make up 8 percent, or 36,667, of permit holders.

Why people want to carry concealed handguns varies, according to the State Bureau of Investigation. But for most women, carrying a handgun is a matter of personal safety.

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Alamance closes jail annex because of a lack of inmates

GRAHAM, N.C. — Alamance County has closed part of its jail because of a decline in inmates.

The Times-News of Burlington reported (http://bit.ly/1ONGFrT) that the sheriff’s office decided to temporarily close an annex that had housed 30 female inmates.

A declining jail population prompted officials to move the women inmates back to the main jail in Graham.

Sheriff Terry Johnson says the county has up to 520 inmates a day under normal circumstances. Johnson says the jail has topped out around 340 inmates for the past couple of months.

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Wake County Sheriff To Hire Three New Drug Investigators

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison plans to hire three new Wake Co
investigators to halt the increase of heavy drugs circulating in the area.

At this week’s meeting of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, Harrison cited the U.S. Justice Department’s findings that Mexican drug trafficking organizations are expanding from Atlanta into North Carolina.

Commissioner Matt Calabria says he supports beefing up the team, which now has 11 drug investigators.

“These officers were very, very busy making street level arrests and investigating drug activity in general. But as we grow as a county and as we grow as a region, drug activity is naturally going to increase.”

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Sheriff and sellers weigh in on gun control

Sellers

With only a year left in his second term as president, President Barack Obama  is looking to toughen up gun laws in the United States through an executive order.

“This is not a plot to take away everybody’s guns,” Obama said in a ceremony in the East Room on Tuesday. “You pass a background check, you purchase a firearm. The problem is, some gun sellers have been operating under a different set of rules.”

Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers are required to conduct background checks on buyers. Through websites, at gun shows and flea markets, though, sellers can sidestep the background checks by not registering as licensed dealers. The new federal guidance from the Obama administration clarified that it applies to anyone “in the business” of selling firearms.

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Randolph County sheriff dies from pneumonia complications

ASHEBORO, N.C. — Randolph County Sheriff Maynard B. Reid Jr., who served in the post since 2006, has died of complications from pneumonia. He was 69.

Lt. Jason Chabot said Reid died at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday at Randolph Hospital, where he had been since Dec. 18.

Chabot said Deputy Chief Ed Blair will become interim sheriff until a new sheriff is appointed.

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