Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Mission Statement

Our mission at the Sheriff's Office is to improve the quality of life in our county by reducing fear, preventing crime and enforcing the law while protecting each individual's freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

We are committed to the fair and impartial enforcement of the laws. We seek not only to reduce crime but also to deal with the citizen’s openly and honestly in an effort to earn and maintain the trust of the general public.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office strives to employ the most professional and capable deputies available. We try to provide the most effective in-service training possible while sending our deputies to other areas to learn new and different styles of training. Our agency has incentives for deputies to receive specialized certificates and college degrees.

As a public agency, we will make every attempt to make our agency accessible. We will try in every way to serve the public in the most efficient way possible. I say our goal because the goals here cannot be attained without the cooperation of the citizens of Richmond County.

Be sure to click on the OffenderWatch link for our new Sex Offender Registry!

Sincerely,

Dale B. Furr

History of the Office of Sheriff

The history and office of the Sheriff has a long heritage. The office of Sheriff goes back over 1000 years to the middle ages. Many of you may remember reading about Sheriff of Nottingham in history classes.

In the lands of early England the countryside’s were divided much like our present day counties into what were called “shires” and they are still called that today.

The King would appoint someone to oversee each shire. These individuals were called “reeves” and they were known as the “reeve of the shire” or the “shire-reeve”. This is where the title “Sheriff” comes from. These early Sheriff’s were the enforcers of the King’s commands, tax collectors and carried out the judgments of the courts, including executions.

When early colonist came to the New World they brought with them many of the Old World traditions. One of them was the tradition of Sheriff. The Lord Proprietors who were the largest landholders appointed the first Sheriff’s in the New World.

After the civil war, the Sheriff became an elected office and has been so since. It is a true “office” and not a county department. It is a constitutional office created by the North Carolina Constitution. Across the United States there are 3,088 Sheriffs. All states have Sheriff’s except Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut. In the other 47 states, all Sheriff’s are elected except in Rhode Island, with only five counties, where the Governor appoints the Sheriffs for one 10-year term.

North Carolina has one Sheriff for each of the 100 counties. Two of those are female Sheriff’s, in Lincoln County and Currituck County. All 100 North Carolina Sheriffs are sworn in on the same day, which is the first Monday in December, every four years.