06/08/2026
304 EMPLOYEES GONE.
LEADERSHIP MATTERS.
I took a closer look at the turnover records from the Craven County Sheriff's Office, and the story they tell may surprise you.
For years, the public has been told the staffing problem is simple: nobody wants to work in the jail.
But public records covering January 2019 through February 2026 tell a much larger story.
According to those records, the Sheriff's Office recorded 304 employee separations during that period.
• 233 voluntary resignations
• 29 retirements
• 42 other separations, including terminations
That means nearly three out of every four employees were not fired. They chose to leave.
To put that in perspective, the Sheriff's Office has approximately 182 to 192 total positions.
Since 2019, enough employees have left to replace nearly every position in the agency and then replace more than half of those positions all over again.
Imagine trying to build consistency, experience, teamwork, leadership, and morale while replacing that many people over and over.
And this was not limited to the detention center.
The records show 166 separations connected to Jail Administration, but also 116 separations on the Sheriff's Office side of the agency, along with turnover involving School Resource Officers.
In other words, the turnover reached across the agency.
Craven County addressed compensation concerns through a pay and classification study. Additional incentives were later approved for detention officers when staffing shortages became a concern.
Those actions were intended to help improve retention.
Yet public records show turnover continued across the agency and remained remarkably consistent from year to year.
That raises an important question: if pay was the primary issue, why did turnover continue at this level across multiple divisions for so many years?
Now let's be fair. Law enforcement agencies across the country have faced recruiting challenges in recent years. That is true.
But there is a difference between hiring challenges and losing this many employees year after year across multiple divisions.
Public records show the Sheriff's Office lost between approximately 36 and 52 employees every single year from 2019 through 2025.
This was not one bad year.
This was not a temporary problem.
It became a continuing pattern.
At some point, the conversation has to move beyond saying nobody wants to work anymore.
When deputies, detention officers, investigators, supervisors, and staff continue leaving year after year, people naturally begin asking whether the problem goes deeper than recruiting.
This is not a criticism of the men and women working at the Sheriff's Office. Many are dedicated professionals serving our community under difficult circumstances.
Leadership matters.
If elected Sheriff, my focus will not be on excuses. My focus will be on rebuilding morale, restoring trust inside the agency, supporting employees, improving communication between leadership and staff, and creating an environment where good people want to stay and build a career serving Craven County.
After spending more than two decades working throughout the Craven County Sheriff's Office in the courtroom, the jail, patrol, investigations, narcotics, and supervision, I learned that leadership is not just a title. Leadership is something employees see every day through your actions, your work ethic, and the way you treat people.
The people working inside the Sheriff's Office deserve leadership that listens to them, values them, and stands behind them.
And when the same problems continue year after year, the public deserves more than excuses.
The public deserves honest answers.
— Mickey Tillman
Candidate for Craven County Sheriff
