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The Candidate

Name

Jimmy Staley

Age

54

Address

Nature Trail, Mocksville

Family

Wife, Shayna (deceased); Parents, Larry & Patsy Staley; Daughters, Samantha, Zoe

Education

1985 Davie County High School graduate; 1987 associate degree in electronics engineering technology, Forsyth Technical Community College

Occupation

Trooper, NC Highway Patrol, assist motorists, investigate crashes, enforce laws including commercial motor vehicle laws

In The Community

• Blaise Baptist Church

• Coach, Davie 4-H Shooting Sports teams, including national champion shotgun team

• Mocksville Masonic Lodge member

 

Why did you decide to seek public office?

Staley: As the head of the county’s largest law enforcement agency, the sheriff is in a unique position to make a positive impact on the county he serves by making it a safer place to live, work, and raise a family. Davie County has been home to my family for generations. As the grandson of a farmer, son of a business owner, and an alumnus of the Davie County School System, I hold a deeply rooted love for Davie County, it’s people, and its’ heritage. It is my desire to serve as your sheriff to make our county a safer and better place.

What personal attributes make for a successful sheriff?

Staley: Compassion and empathy are the two personality traits that will serve me well as your sheriff. Not only do I care for you and your family, but also want you to feel that you can approach me with your concerns and suggestions. I have had to walk a rough path and only survived due to the support of this community. I have learned firsthand the critical role that a loving community plays in the lives of our people.

Humility is important in a leader to foster a more congenial workplace, encourage teamwork, and value the well-being of those he leads. I am the first to acknowledge that no leader can be successful without the support of those in his command. I am fortunate that God has blessed me with a servant’s heart and a warrior’s mindset.

Experience. I have chosen to remain a working trooper throughout my career with the NC Highway Patrol. This gives me a point of view that is unique to this campaign. It enables me to know and understand what the road officer does, why he does it, and what he needs. I know what works as well as what does not work.

Training. I have been involved in training officers, new recruits and veteran officers alike, since 2004. I know what training is required and critical and what training is simply fluff with no substance. I have developed a network of trusted instructors statewide who are able to conduct the most beneficial training for our deputies.

Leadership/Mentoring. As a trainer for 18 years, I have the distinctive position of being a field level leader rather than an administrative leader. With a solid reputation as a knowledgeable officer and  work ethic beyond reproach, I have trained, led and mentored developing officers as well as veteran officers who are showing signs of stress or struggle. Watching for and quickly correcting these situations before they result in the end of an officer’s career or cause potential embarrassment to the county will be one of my top priorities as sheriff.

Physical fitness is a critical component of an effective officer’s life. In order to become an officer in North Carolina, a candidate must demonstrate a minimum level of physical fitness. I am able to exceed these standards and will implement a program to promote physical fitness to improve both the health and performance of our deputies.

Fiscal fitness. I have always lived below my means as a principle of good stewardship. I will be as conservative with your tax dollars as I am with my own money.

Approachable.  This quality is important for any successful sheriff. I live, eat, worship, shop and volunteer in Davie County and will continue to do so. I value your input as to what is going well and what needs improvement. If you see me out and about in the community, I want you to feel comfortable in approaching me with your comments. My door will always be open to you.

What are the most worrisome crimes in Davie County and what would you do to combat them?

Staley: I am most concerned about the influx of drug traffic and drug related crimes in our community. These are the most widespread and invasive crimes in Davie County. To paraphrase a popular saying, all it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. Sticking your head in the sand and denying that our county is under attack from those who profit from illegal drugs does nothing to address the problem. It allows the problem to escalate out of control. I do not shy away from stating the obvious, that Davie County has a drug problem.

Stopping and preventing drug crimes will be a top priority for my office. The widespread availability and huge negative impact of illegal drugs in our community has caused a ripple effect of negativity which impacts all community members. I will work tirelessly to ensure that those who choose an illegal drug lifestyle will not find a safe haven in Davie County.

As for those crimes that are the most worrisome or alarming, I would say that any crime committed against children is the most reprehensible. Just one visit with the staff at The Dragonfly House is enough to drive this point home. We are, indeed, blessed to have The Dragonfly House helping our most vulnerable, but by mere virtue of the fact that we need an organization such as this indicates that we have so much work to do to prevent child abuse and protect the most innocent and valuable souls among us.

I have worked for more than a decade with you in our community, and will continue to do so both personally and in my role as sheriff. My office will support and encourage its deputies to get involved with the community through a host of volunteer opportunities. One of the ways to make Davie County a safer place is to foster a relationship of trust between law enforcement officers and our youth.

Another, often overlooked, crime that is concerning is that of traffic speed. Excessive speed is the leading cause for deaths and severe injuries in traffic collisions. In Davie County, traffic collisions kill more people annually than murders. In order to keep our citizens safe, we need an effective traffic enforcement unit to counter the dangers of reckless driving.

In order to reverse the trend of rising crimes in our county, I want to spearhead the Sheriff’s Office in moving toward becoming more proactive and professional in dealing with our citizens while also evolving into a community involved asset for the prevention of crime. Any citizen who requests assistance from the Davie County Sheriff’s Office under my command will receive it.

Other Issues

Staley: I am asking for your support as the next Sheriff of Davie County, and, more importantly, to tell you why I am the most qualified candidate.

I have been with the NC State Highway Patrol since 1997. I have served as a trooper in 15 of North Carolina’s 100 counties and have worked in conjunction with many different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies – an invaluable collaboration that has given me insight as to what effective law enforcement on all levels looks like. I have, by choice, remained on the road for my entire career, something which sets me apart from the other candidates for sheriff and gives me the unique perspective and firsthand knowledge of field work. It has also allowed me to have a front row seat to the positive impact of good leadership as well as the crushing effects of poor or tarnished leadership.

The Davie County Sheriff’s Department has been steadily making improvements with regards to logistics and equipment, but now it is time to fully invest in its officers and focus on improved service to the community. My focus will be on crime prevention and proactive law enforcement to locate criminals.

A sheriff should have a true heart for the people he serves. He would also have the wisdom to lead those under him to become their best. These are qualities I not only possess but where I excel.

Officers are frequently called upon to make life-altering decisions under tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving conditions. This stressful environment highlights the need for ongoing, credible, and effective training. As a long term professional law enforcement trainer, I will turn my attention to prioritizing such effective training for the department and will minimize data driven training that seeks only to inflate the reportable training hours for officers.

My first introduction into public service came as a junior firefighter in Davie County. I have volunteered with the Davie County Rescue Squad and am an EMT and EMT instructor. This experience has shown me the importance of interagency training. After I am elected, my office will support and participate in combined training with other agencies to ensure the most efficacious emergency response system for our county.

The question I am most often asked is, “Why should I vote for you? What makes you so different from the other candidates?” My answer to that is always the same: I am the candidate who has worked for over two decades in the field and knows what law enforcement officers need to be successful at their jobs. As a lifelong citizen and descendant of a multigenerational Davie County family, I understand what our citizens want and need in order to feel safe in our community. I am not a member of the political machine, good ole boys club, or clique, so my allegiance is to those I lead as well as to the people of Davie County. I eat local, worship local, and volunteer local because I love Davie County.

My door will always be open to you. Your concerns will be my concerns. Your needs will be my needs. Your family will be my family. I work for you.

Being your sheriff will combine my extensive law enforcement knowledge and experience with my willingness to tirelessly serve this community, always placing its needs above my own.