Contenders for the Henry County Sheriff’s post fielded questions at a September 7 Candidate Forum hosted by the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and Appalachian Power. The event was moderated by Phil Gardner, of Gardner, Barrow & Sharpe, P.C.
Interim Sheriff Wayne Davis and Del Mills provided a brief introduction, their training and experience, qualifications for office, and other information, and then responded to questions that had been disseminated to them a few hours before the forum.
Body cameras and dash cameras give you an opportunity to be essentially an eyewitness to how your deputies are performing in the scope of their duties. Body cams and dash cams give a judge or a jury the opportunity to be an eyewitness to events involved in the commission of crime and the arrests for crime. What is your position on equipping as many deputies as possible with such equipment? Aren’t there funds available for the equipment, training, and retention of such footage?
Mills said he is absolutely in favor of equipping every officer with body cameras and dash cameras.
“Body cameras provide accountability and transparency, and body cameras provide a visual and audio record of interactions between police and the public. They promote accountability by ensuring officers are held responsible for their actions and behaviors during encounters with the public,” he said.
Mills said footage captured by the cameras can be used as evidence in investigations, help solve disputes, and hold individuals accountable for their actions as they capture real-time documentation.
“Body cameras also supplement written reports, and provide an additional layer of detail and accuracy. Body camera footage can be used as a tool for training. and evaluating officers,” he said.
Mills said supervisors can review footage to identify if and where officers may need additional training. He noted the cameras also allow the Sheriff’s Office to access tactics, decision-making, and communication of the officers, which leads to improved performance and professionalism.
The presence of body cameras, Mills said, can encourage officers and civilians to modify their behavior during interactions.
“Knowing that they’re being recorded encourages officers to adhere to policy and guidelines which promote professionalism and prevent misconduct. Similarly, individuals interacting with law enforcement may be less likely to engage in confrontational behavior while they know they’re being recorded,” he said.
In May at the Republican forum, Mills said he and others met with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office which encouraged departments to apply for funding to meet these needs and additional equipment.
Davis said the office currently uses both body and dash cameras, “an invaluable tool in the world of policing.”
At the sheriff’s office, body-worn cameras are issued to every patrol deputy, School Resource Officer (SRO), community policing deputy, street crimes deputy, and animal control officer. There are also body cameras available to criminal investigators, vice investigators, and civil process deputies if needed.
“We have a policy for that. Our agency policy is that deputies turn the camera on at every call for service, for every traffic stop, and even casual citizen encounters that become more than just casual, they are required to activate those cameras,” he said.
Davis said these policies are in place to ensure accountability and transparency. There are also in-car cameras inside every patrol vehicle for the same purpose.
“They are required to activate those at every traffic stop. In fact, anytime we activate the blue lights they automatically activate for accountability and transparency,” he said.
While the cameras are great tools for being able to go back and review what happened during calls, Davis noted there are pros and cons for the system.
The pros include the ability to review events with ease in detail.
“They can either dispel or confirm allegations against law enforcement. They are great tools for courtroom purposes so a judge and or jury can view this firsthand from the officer’s perspective. They provide actual footage of the events the deputies were subjected to,” he said.
Davis said one con is the cameras being mounted at chest height, not eye level, and not rotating like the deputy’s head.
“Another con is they capture detail in low light situations that the human eye cannot capture. So, when we review those, we have to keep it in mind. Another con is these cameras are expensive,” he said.
Davis said the department has 60 cameras at a cost of $1,000 each. In-car (dash) cameras are $5,000 each and are an annual recurring cost.
“There is grant funding that becomes available from time to time, there is equipment training and retention of the video, however, they have stipulations such as matching funding, which is typically not budgeted for, and they’re typically available only to agencies who don’t already have body camera policies in place,” he said.
The nation has been rocked and its citizens shocked by the slaughter of students and teachers in mass shootings. Please outline your plans to ensure that your department responds as quickly and efficiently as possible to an active shooter inside a school. Please outline what you will recommend the protocol be with respect to what school officials should do. Please outline the protocol of what your department is supposed to do. Please set forth specific training drills to ensure proper performance of your deputies. should there be and will there be, if you are elected, live practice drills? Will you have a specifically designated person who is training and educated and an expert on such subjects? Should children be involved in live drills?
For the first time in the county’s history, Davis said an SRO is assigned to all county schools.
“Those school resource officers are the absolute first line of defense against any active shooter. They are all trained law enforcement officers, many of them have been trained in advanced tactics, some are even former SWAT team members, and all of them have received training in active shooter response,” he said.
Davis said every law enforcement officer is equipped with the tools and training needed to stop an active shooter, and every patrol division supervisor is equipped with a ballistic shield capable of stopping rifle fire and advanced breaching capabilities so they can get into any emergency situation.
“We have a 25-member SWAT team here at the Sheriff’s Office, I spent 21 years on that team, and as the commander, we spare no expense in training or equipping to make sure we are prepared for any active shooter,” he said.
Davis said the team has conducted live training inside Henry County schools for nearly two decades, though it has not been advertised.
“These are live practice drills with force-on-force training designed to simulate real gun battles. In 2013, I completed the Department of Homeland Security’s federal law enforcement Active Shooter Response Emergency Training to teach other officers,” he said, adding there are eight other federal certified instructors in the department.
While the department and the school division perform several lock-down drills annually, Davis does not support involving students in live drills because he doesn’t believe any child should be subject to any tactical type of drill where there are simulated casualties.
“This would introduce not only the Sheriff’s Office but the Henry County Public School System, to potential liability. This can be highly traumatic to the child, and in fact, modern best practices recommend law enforcement officers don’t even conduct an interview with the child to prevent the introduction of trauma, much less a live drill where there’s a simulated gun battle and or casualties. That is a terrible idea,” he said.
In 2023, Mills said there have been 198 school shooting incidents.
“A well-trained and coordinated response is crucial to dealing with an active shooter threat in our school system,” he said. “The school resource officer will be the first line of defense, will be your first officer to respond to an active shooter and he needs to respond in a timely manner.”
Mills said once the sheriff’s office is alerted of an active shooter, officers will respond to the school location as the school alerts through the 911 system in a direct line.
“Officers will secure the perimeter to prevent the shooter from escaping and protect potential victims from the outside immediate danger zone. Officers will also work to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering into the area,” he said.
Law enforcement will also gather information upon arrival about the shooter including his location, identity if known, and the number of potential victims. Mills said this information helps guide the tactical response and decision-making process.
“The primary goal of law enforcement is to neutralize the shooter and stop the threat. Officers will form specialized response teams such as SWAT. I’ve been a member of the SWAT team, and I’ve trained in the schools. It’s imperative that every officer has that same training and general information of the schools,” he said.
Mills said the goal is to engage the shooter and use appropriate force to eliminate the threat. Once the threat is neutralized, officers will secure the area and begin evacuating the students and staff from the school.
“The role that school officials play is critical in an active shooter situation. The school officials are responsible for implementing the emergency response plans and working closely with law enforcement to ensure a coordinated and effective response,” he said.
Whether a 400-person jail should or should not have been built is water over the dam. This fact is we have it and the Board of Supervisors, and the current Sheriff are obviously in favor of filling it up. This will require the Sheriff to be the ultimate person in charge of a facility housing 400 people who do not want to be housed there, 24 hours a day, seven days a week providing food, clothing, shelter, safety, and necessary medical treatment. We will take up to 70 federal prisoners and up to 100 prisoners from basically anybody in Virginia who wants to send a prisoner to us. Obviously, we will get sent the troublemakers and the worst of the worst and we don’t have the luxury of sending them back. Please address your view of the wisdom of filling the jail up with prisoners from wherever we can get them. Please address your view of the drain on the sheriff’s resources to properly manage such a full-house facility. Please address how you plan to staff the facility and ensure the safety of prisoners who are pulling time from our local courts.
Mills said the 400-bed, $72 million modern facility was designed with rehabilitation in mind.
“As sheriff, my main concern is the safety and security of both the inmates and the staff. Currently, there are approximately 100 uniformed staff in the detention center. The vast majority of the staff has less than 18 months of service,” he said.
Mills said the Henry County Board of Supervisors was sold a faulty bill of goods when it was promised a million-dollar surplus in funds. Instead, $210,000 was generated.
He believes this occurred because of planning issues.
“My plan is to safely bring inmates from neighboring jurisdictions, jurisdictions such as Franklin County, Pittsylvania County, Martinsville City has already agreed and sending inmates to the Henry County Jail,” he said.
Regarding federal inmates, Mills said those inmates who have not been sentenced will have court dates in federal court in either Danville or Roanoke.
“This is going to be a burden because additional equipment is needed, and manpower. The single most dangerous time for an officer is in the transportation of inmates to and from court. Any transportation of an inmate is going to require two officers per inmate,” he said, adding this step ties up a lot of manpower.
To house 400 inmates, Mills said the center must be fully staffed, and therefore the department has to deal with issues of employee retention.
“We’ve got to work to make the detention center a safe place for people to work. You’ve got to increase morale. Morale increases retention,” he said.
Mills said since July, nearly 20 officers have either resigned or been terminated, and that this type of attrition cannot be sustained to safely run the center.
He also believes leadership must stand up to be accountable and be approachable to the center’s staff.
Mills said federal inmates and local inmates should be housed separately, not only for classification reasons but for restrictions the federal inmates may have based on federal policy.
“The majority of federal inmates across the nation are either sentenced for drug trafficking offenses or firearm violations. This will take a diligent effort for all staff to ensure field training is properly disseminated. Field training is so important to the officers,” he said.
Davis said the plan for the Adult Detention Center was presented to the Henry County Board of Supervisors in 2016.
“The five-step plan estimated that by 2023 our inmates here in Henry County would be between 400 and 467. This study is required by the Virginia Department of Corrections, and based on its estimated needs this community spent over $70 million to build a state-of-the-art adult detention center,” he said.
Before it was completed, Davis said it was estimated Henry County could generate about $1 million in revenue annually by housing inmates from other jurisdictions.
Davis said the problem now is if there’s a failure to generate this revenue, the department still must balance its budget through other means like cutting training, equipment, or other line items.
“Those estimates were done pre-COVID and didn’t take a lot of things into account. “We’ve seen that local inmate populations are down across the entire Commonwealth,” he said.
Davis said he reached out to Pittsylvania, Franklin, and Patrick counties, and the city of Martinsville about housing inmates. Pittsylvania and Franklin counties are currently under contract with other jails, and 20 inmates from Martinsville are currently being housed at the center.
When the center opened, the State Compensation Board provided funding to staff the facility for 400 inmates.
“That is a rate of one deputy per three inmates. This means this facility at full staff is already ready to house 400 inmates. We currently have an average daily population of only 250,” he said.
In August, Davis said he signed an intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. Marshall’s Service for the Western District of North Carolina.
In its initial phases, the Adult Detention Center will house a maximum of 50 federal inmates at $65 per day per diem, which generates $1.1 million in annual revenue. When the facility is ready and properly staffed, it can be expanded to house 200 federal inmates for $4.7 million in annual revenue.
“That income is needed, and also reduce the burden on Henry County, and thereby the taxpayers,” he said.
Davis said the federal inmates the center will house from the Marshall Service will be criminal offenders who are awaiting trial as pretrial detainees.
“Despite the rumors that have circulated in this community, they’re not known terrorists, ICE or immigration detainees, and none of these inmates will ever be released from the Henry County Adult Detention Center to walk the streets of Martinsville and Henry County,” he said. “They will be returned to Charlotte, North Carolina where they will be processed out or sent to federal prison to serve out their terms.”
The U.S. Marshall’s Service will be responsible for the transportation.
Davis also addressed some of the other rumors regarding the center.
“These are not the worst of the worst, as stated in the question. We do in fact reserve the right to send them back if they cause problems for our staff. This will not be a drain on our resources because we have a state-of-the-art facility that already has the staffing for 400 inmates, we’re only at 250,” he said.
Please take this final opportunity to address points of disagreement each of you may have with statements made by the other. This is not an invitation to be nitpicky and critical, simply an opportunity to point out where you disagree with the other candidate on matters of policy and why you think your approach would be better. Also, an invitation to address something that was not asked in previous questions.
Mills said his campaign motto is “service before politics,” and it’s rooted in the idea that public officials should put the needs of the people first.
“It encourages elected officials to act in the best interest of the citizens, make decisions based on the greater good, and work towards the betterment of the county as a whole,” he said.
Mills, who combined his campaign with former candidate Daryl Hatcher, said he is a conservative, family-oriented man with Christian values. He promises to work diligently to ensure the safety of Henry County’s residents and improve officer morale.
“Rest assured, your promotion and your ascension through the Henry County Sheriff’s Office will be based on your merit, and again, you’re going to be encouraged to reach your full potential and you’ll be aided and assisted by any means possible,” he said.
Davis said he is the only certified law enforcement officer seeking the position of sheriff.
“Not only that, but my entire team is also fully certified by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services,” he said. “These laws were written decades ago. It’s 2023, the sheriff must be up to date with the most modern, best practices. He supervises 239 employees that are required to be certified by the Department of Criminal Justice Services. How can we have a sheriff that’s not” certified, he asked.
Mills is not a certified law enforcement officer.
