Camden Sheriff's Office: No Dedicated Facility Funded Yet

CAMDEN, N.C. — Camden County put in writing more than two years ago that its Sheriff's Office was "operating at maximum capacity" and in "dire need" of secure space for evidence, special equipment and a holding area.

The words appear in the County's adopted 2024–2029 Capital Improvement Plan, in a transmittal letter signed by County Manager Erin Burke and dated May 17, 2024.

The plan does not fund a dedicated Sheriff's Office facility. Instead, it proposes that the department eventually occupy space vacated after Camden constructs a new Parks and Recreation/Senior Center and relocates the programs currently sharing the Sheriff's building.

On July 21, 2026, Burke answered ten written questions from Camden Tribune. Asked about a Sheriff's Office or public-safety facility, she stated that the Board of Commissioners had not discussed the matter.

Camden Tribune reviewed the adopted capital plan, Burke's complete written responses, Sheriff's Office budget records and the official minutes of the May 6, May 7 and June 3, 2024 Board meetings. Together, those records show that commissioners considered and adopted the broader capital plan, while no separately named Sheriff's Office facility received its own project budget, design or completion schedule.

How the plan reached the Board

The Board scheduled the Capital Improvement Plan's public hearing during its May 6, 2024 meeting. The hearing notice appeared as Item 8-J on the consent agenda.

Consent agendas group routine or administrative actions into one motion. The May 6 agenda included meeting minutes, budget amendments, tax reports, refund requests, a Mid-Currituck Bridge support letter and three public-hearing notices.

Commissioner Randy Krainiak moved to approve the consent agenda as presented. Chair Ross Munro, Vice Chair Troy Leary and Commissioners Krainiak, Sissy Aydlett and Tiffney White voted in favor.

The approved minutes record no separate discussion of the Capital Improvement Plan during that consent vote.

The Board returned to the capital plan the following day. During a May 7 budget work session, commissioners received the proposed CIP project list for information, discussion and direction.

The funded list presented at that work session included the Administration Complex Phase II, broadband, the new high school, Treasure Point, Emergency Medical Services, the South Mills boat ramp and park, and the South Mills wastewater project. It did not include a separately named Sheriff's Office or public-safety facility.

County Manager Erin Burke signed the CIP transmittal letter on May 17. That letter contained the County's statements that the Sheriff's Office was operating at maximum capacity and was in dire need of secure operational space.

Burke presented the plan at its June 3 public hearing. No public comments were made. Commissioners then approved the 2024–2029 Capital Improvement Plan as presented by a unanimous vote.

What the plan pays for

The transmittal letter notes the County was then in the 20th year of running a capital improvement process.

Seven projects sit on the approved and funded list: the Administration Complex Phase II, countywide broadband, the new high school, the Treasure Point Rural Education Center, the new Emergency Medical Services department, the South Mills boat ramps and park, and the South Mills wastewater plant expansion.

Two more are recommended but unfunded: a sidewalk extension along US 158 and a wastewater filtration pond. Four others are identified but unfunded: a public beach, the Dismal Swamp Trail extension, canal boating amenities, and a new South Mills convenience center and transfer station.

A dedicated law-enforcement facility appears in none of the three categories.

The County's own words about the Sheriff's Office

The Sheriff's Office is not absent from the plan. It appears inside another department's project.

The narrative for the Administration Complex Phase II states that the Sheriff's Office would take over an outbuilding at the courthouse complex to relieve crowding in its office suite. The stated long-term goal is for the department to absorb the entire building it now shares with Parks and Recreation and the Senior Center, once a new center is built on 7.69 acres the County bought across the road.

Burke's transmittal letter is more direct. It says the Sheriff's Office "is operating at maximum capacity," describes the need for space where evidence and special equipment can be secured along with a holding area, and calls the department in "dire need" of it.

As of publication, no dedicated Sheriff's Office facility has been funded, designed, or scheduled.

What else the Board approved that night

The May 6 open session ran one hour and five minutes, from 7:00 PM to adjournment at 8:05 PM. Four of the money items on that agenda bear on capital spending.

The Board adopted a resolution accepting the U.S. Department of Agriculture Letter of Conditions for the new high school, on a 5-0 vote moved by Munro. The attached project budget totals $80,000,000, funded by a USDA loan of $29,987,400 and North Carolina Department of Public Instruction grant funds of $50,012,600. The loan runs 30 years at 3.5 percent, with an annual payment of $1,630,716.

Commissioners approved the Timmons Group preliminary engineering proposal for the South Mills wastewater expansion, 5-0. The fixed fee is $65,000. Burke told the Board it would be paid with state grant funds.

Budget Amendment 2023-24-BA035 moved $900,000 in grant revenue into capital outlay to buy ambulances for the County's new Emergency Services operation.

Budget Amendment 2023-24-BA036 recorded $1,000 in revenue and $1,000 in expense from the sale of Law Enforcement Support Office equipment. LESO is the federal surplus property program through which sheriff's offices obtain and dispose of surplus military and federal equipment. The amendment is a disposal entry, not an appropriation for facilities, and it is the only law-enforcement item in the May 6 record.

Each of those actions carried defined financing, engineering, or equipment terms. The minutes contain no comparable appropriation, design contract or project schedule for a dedicated Sheriff's Office facility.

How the County says it picks projects

The plan prints the County's project evaluation criteria. One asks whether a project would "eliminate an immediate safety hazard for County citizens or employees."

The plan also describes how evaluation actually happens. Since fiscal year 2011, it states, project evaluation "was done through interaction and discussion" between the county manager and the commissioners, with input from department heads.

Burke described the same process to Camden Tribune. The Board discusses needs at its retreat, those items enter the plan, and the plan returns at budget work sessions and a public hearing.

Asked directly whether the Sheriff's Office requests went through capital planning, Burke wrote that the requests "were made informally and addressed through general budget expenditures."

Her May 6 report also stated that she had attended Budget Work Session One. The minutes reviewed by Camden Tribune do not identify what Sheriff-related facility issues, if any, were discussed during that session. The documented May 7 work session, held the following day, presented the proposed project list without a separately named Sheriff's Office facility.

What the county manager told Camden Tribune

Burke's July 21 responses answered all ten questions. Several put new facts on the public record.

She wrote that the Sheriff's Office has asked for additional space to accommodate nine positions added over the last four years, and that the department has made internal alterations and expanded into an outbuilding at its current location.

Asked whether the County has ever conducted a formal facilities assessment or space-needs analysis for the Sheriff's Office, she wrote: "No study has been conducted."

Asked whether current facilities are adequate for projected growth over the next 10 to 20 years, she wrote that the County recognizes the need for more space in every department, including the Sheriff's Office. The County intends to build the Parks and Recreation/Senior Center first, then "renovate the old center to meet the needs of the Sheriff's Office."

Asked whether any funding, property, or operational constraint has prevented the County from pursuing a Sheriff's Office project, her full answer was one word: "No."

She wrote that County efforts have focused on finishing the new high school and the Treasure Point Extension Center, and that with both underway, the County is turning to the Parks and Recreation/Senior Center. The Board and staff intend to begin a Capital Improvement Plan and Reserve Fund planning process this fiscal year.

In her final answer, Burke wrote that the Board hopes a thorough planning process can begin to address needs "starting with the needs of our youth and senior citizens" and expanding from there.

Where the public record requires clarification

Camden Tribune identified three points where the records describe the same subject in different terms. Each is printed here without characterization, and the County has been asked to clarify all three.

The meaning of discussion. Burke stated twice that the Board had not discussed a Sheriff's Office facility request. The adopted plan describes the Sheriff's space problem and a future arrangement in which the department occupies space vacated by Parks and Recreation and the Senior Center. One possible explanation is that the Board treated the space issue only as a component of the Administration Complex, never as a standalone law-enforcement project.

The study. Burke stated that no facilities assessment or space-needs analysis has been conducted for the Sheriff's Office. The Administration Complex narrative references a March 2016 Wooten Company space-needs study for the broader project. The plan does not say whether that study evaluated the Sheriff's Office separately. Camden Tribune has requested it under the North Carolina Public Records Law.

The constraint. Burke's answer states nothing prevented the County from pursuing a Sheriff's Office project. Her 2024 letter states the department was already at maximum capacity and in dire need. Both statements are the County's own.

What has to happen before the Sheriff's Office gets space

The County's stated plan is a chain of three steps, and none of them has a completion date in either document.

The new Parks and Recreation/Senior Center must be designed, funded, and built. Parks and Recreation and the Senior Center must then move out of the building they share with the Sheriff's Office. Only then does the County renovate the vacated space for law-enforcement use.

The plan shows design work for the new center beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year. Burke's July 2026 answers state the County is only now preparing to start a new capital planning and reserve fund process.

The numbers

The Sheriff's Office budget for fiscal year 2026–27 is $3,917,332, according to the County's year-to-date budget report generated July 6. A separate School Resource Officer budget adds $433,078.

The two appropriations total roughly $4.35 million. Salaries alone account for $2,105,242 of the Sheriff's Office line, and the department is among the County's largest.

By Burke's own count, it has added nine positions in four years. It works out of the historic courthouse complex at 117 NC Highway 343 North.

The sheriff has not responded

Camden Tribune sent Sheriff Kevin Jones the same request on July 12, with ten questions about space, evidence storage, interview rooms and long-term needs. Jones acknowledged the request that evening and said he would do his best to respond by July 17.

No substantive response had been received as of publication. Camden Tribune renewed the request after receiving the county manager's answers and will publish the sheriff's response if one is provided.

Sheriff Kevin Jones is also running for re-election unopposed this November 2026

What happens next

Burke's answers state the Board intends to begin a new Capital Improvement Plan and Reserve Fund planning process this fiscal year. That process could determine whether Camden evaluates a dedicated Sheriff's Office facility as a separate capital project.

Camden Tribune has requested the March 2016 Wooten Company study, any capital project requests from the Sheriff's Office, the criteria and scoring used to build the plan, the minutes of every fiscal year 2024–25 budget work session, and correspondence between the Sheriff's Office and county administration about facility needs. This story will be updated as records are produced.

Document note: The May 6 minutes identify the plan as covering FY 2024–2028, while the adopted document is titled 2024–2029. The plan also contains differing references to the number of its governing financial-policy resolution. Camden Tribune has requested clarification.

Camden Tribune submitted written questions to County Manager Erin Burke and Sheriff Kevin Jones on July 12, 2026. Burke responded on July 21. Jones acknowledged the request on July 12 and had not provided a substantive response as of publication. All documents cited in this article are public records available from Camden County.