Granville Sheriff Fountain gives 100-day update

Mar. 20—OXFORD — During his campaign for the Granville County sheriff seat, then-Democratic hopeful Robert Fountain held a "Sunday Sit Down" at the end of each week.

"I want to make sure now, since I am the guy," said Fountain before the event, "that we continue the process of making sure the community knows what I'm doing, hold me accountable for what I do, and they're letting me be transparent in what we're trying to accomplish moving forward."

On Sunday, he had a sit-down with Next Door Radio and the community to take questions about his first 100 days in office.

Right off the bat, the office made a drug bust.

"We scheduled it to take them down as soon as I took office," he said. "It took some work to get it done. We got 10 kilos of pure cocaine off the streets."

In another case, "We got some intelligence based on some individuals there on Highway 96," said Fountain. That was part of the GCSO's focusing on community engagement policing.

Those individuals were allegedly running a marijuana growing operation. Some, Fountain explained, believed that it was a hemp farm.

"Of the 222 pounds that we confiscated from that young man, 192 of those were classified as marijuana after the [State Bureau of Investigation] classified those as, the THC content was that of marijuana, not hemp," the sheriff explained.

There's been a marked change in the office's command structure — The chief deputy position no longer exists.

"There's been a control change," he said, "to where every division has its own section head" which are led by chiefs Clements, Griffon, Robertson, McCaw, and Neuman.

"So, direct structure has changed," he said.

Some of his decisions may be unpopular, he noted, but they're what he believes are best for the agency first and the community second.

He said he got the deputies off-duty pay increased to $40 an hour to do off-duty work; detectives, the evidence technician and the crime scene investigator get on-call pay as well.

What's next for the sheriff's office? Fountain has spearheaded efforts to change the GCSO's look.

"If you're going to be a part of the thin blue line," said Fountain, "then, where the blue at when the sheriff's office is brown? There is none..."

All the office's staff participated in a contest to decide what the new cars would look like. The uniforms are changing too, he explained — to blue, while other offices around the state and country are switching to brown.

"... So, a lot of people think we used taxpayer dollars to do those things, and again, they don't know. Because they never ask."

Asset forfeiture funds and around $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice will be used to pay for the GCSO's changes, he said, which amount to around $500 per car and uniform.

"So, we still keep the burden off of the taxpayers," he said.

"So, it's not an authoritarian type of leadership here," he said. "I take advice and counsel from my staff, they tell me how I should move..."

The GCSO has four vehicles that were once going to be surplussed — instead, they'll be going to Vance-Granville Community College for student drivers in the school's Basic Law Enforcement Training course.

Five winners were chosen in a contest between all schools in the county to give students a chance to submit designs for two community engagement vehicles, he said.

"We're going to continue to build bridges to make things where we're collectively doing the right thing," he said.

One way to do that was Operation Spring Cleaning, three days of increased patrols during Saint Patrick's Day weekend. It went "great," he said. The full number of actions taken by the law enforcement agencies that took part, and the nature of those actions, has yet to be released.

Patrols were posted on Old Franklinton Road because "a citizen asked," Fountain said. "We're gonna target the areas that people tell me I need to be."

Oxford won't be left out .though he wants to make sure to work together with OPD in those cases. A tip line in English and Spanish will help citizens take part.

The greatest law enforcement issue in the community at the moment is the lack of trust between citizens and the GCSO, he said. Reaching youth who commit crimes or are at risk of such, and steering them away from a bad path, is another priority. Internships for college students, youth programming and other forms of community outreach are the vehicles for that plan.

Fountain discussed reentry of imprisoned people back into society with one audience member. One part of the plan is to begin providing free medical insurance for imprisoned people for those who don't have any of that. Another is working towards getting a diversionary program in the county, Fountain said.

"The sheriff's office is not just about law enforcement, it's about healing communities, it's about building bridges, it's not just about locking people up," Fountain said.

He was also interested in responding to criticisms, mostly received via Facebook. Feedback from the community has been mostly positive. Mostly. He alleged that one woman was threatening to sue the GCSO because she was blocked for 24 hours for using racial slurs in her criticisms of the office.

"The last thing I want to do is bring racially-motivated commentary to the sheriff's office's page," he said. So, he removed all comments on posts on GCSO's page and removed the ability for users to make comments, which "is consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's guidelines," he said.

A rumor said that Fountain was going to "take over" the Oxford Police Department, in his words. He assured those in attendance that he had sworn to never hire anybody from OPD at a dinner with Police Chief Pat Ford.

He also said that, as Granville County's chief law enforcement officer, he had the right to take over law enforcement agencies if they were classified as ineffective under General Statutes. The OPD never got to that point.

He wants to go through the county's contingency budget to find a way to "fully staff and fund" the GCSO.

Fountain recommended anybody interested in both supporting him and holding him accountable should be present when the GCSO attends Granville County Commissioners meetings. Those interested in contacting the sheriff should call or text 919-464-9880 or email sheriff.fountain@granvillecounty.org. Now that he's sheriff, he noted, he can't answer every call — even if he wants to.

"My number ain't changed," he said.