Why would someone run for sheriff after being hired by the same department three times?

This episode isn’t about attacks or politics. It’s about perspective. I talk with Randall Ackley about what he’s seen on patrol, inside investigations, and from years of working in a rapidly growing county. When staffing can’t keep up, presence disappears. What does that mean for safety, trust, and the future of Johnston County?

Why he came to Johnston County, his different jobs and law enforcement including. I think 19 years with the Sheriff's Department and why he thinks he should be the next sheriff of Johnston County. So listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it's a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

If you are a registered Republican or a registered unaffiliate in Johnston County, you can vote in this race. Early voting starts February 12th. The election is March 3rd. You should know your candidates, which is why we're bringing you this candidate series. But before we get to that, we'd like to ask you to like, follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it.

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Welcome Randy.

Randy Ackley: Thank you.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, so it's a long time to see ya. I used to do criminal defense and we used to work together when you were at the sheriff's department. And I stopped doing criminal defense about, I don't know, 15 years ago and started doing just family law. I don't see you as much as I used to, but we used to be at district court all the time.

Randy Ackley: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, I think you were doing some of the drugs and stuff back then. So tell the audience who you are and what you do.

Randy Ackley: Currently right now I'm just, I'm running for sheriff. Prior to that I, I worked at the sheriff's office. I was a major crimes detective there. Prior to that worked our patrol division, property crime.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, so where'd you grow up?

Randy Ackley: I grew up in Michigan. So Muskegon, Michigan is. It's primarily where a lot of my, my growth was. It's on the, as a true Michigan person. Take your hand. You're on the, the west coast of Michigan. Right there at Lake Michigan. So,

Jonathan Breeden: okay

Randy Ackley: I graduated from a small town named Hesperia High School. It's really close to Fremont, Michigan, which is the Gerber, Gerber baby food capital of the world. So, okay. Came down here early two thousands, got involved in law enforcement and here we are today.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well, cool. Cool. So what brought you to Johnston County?

Randy Ackley: So, in, in true Michigan fashion, I wanted to get away from the weather.

Jonathan Breeden: I understand that.

Jonathan Breeden: So when and where did you go to BLAT school?

And then really wanted to get into the local municipality. So I, I kind of went from there into Four Oaks Police Department and then kind of stepped my way into the Sheriff's office.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Alright. And I think I first met you when you were, you were at Four Oaks. I think that's right. I, I, I think I'm remembering that right. So when did you switch to work for the Johnston County Sheriff's Office?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So, you worked at Wilson's Mills for how long?

Randy Ackley: It's like six months and I went back to the sheriff's.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay. You went back to the sheriff's department. Okay.

Randy Ackley: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Golly, Wilson's Mills is a small department. I, I mean, back then it might have only had three members.

Randy Ackley: Yeah. So,

Jonathan Breeden: or four it wasn't very big, I don't think back then. It's a little bigger now.

Randy Ackley: Yeah. It, it's grown tremendously. Just like Johnston County. So primarily what, what had happened at that is, is I was offered a, a job there and was given an opportunity to grow and go to training. And then I got there like many times in, in smaller agencies, things happen, administration change. And all those promises kind of went out the window,

Jonathan Breeden: right

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, they do. They do. And I don't blame 'em.

Randy Ackley: So,

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, they got, they got families to feed like everybody else.

Randy Ackley: Yep. So, and that's so that, that caused that decision. And again, you know, the sheriff called me back and said, Hey look we just, we just got some, some really good pay raises. I'd love to have you come back and sat down with my family, made the decision and, and went back until, you know, this past march.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. So when did you go back to sheriff's department? For the third time

Randy Ackley: No. So it is a very, like my stints at other agencies are very short.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Ackley: I know. It looks, it looks really bad on paper and when you say it out loud, it sounds even worse, but really and truly is.

There's always been a, a standard of, of what's gonna be best for not only my family, but Right. Also looking after the things that I have to look after as a family man and, and as anybody would, so.

Randy Ackley: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I think you start out in patrol, as most people do and did you ever get the, the Cleveland Zone?

Randy Ackley: Every once in a while we got, we got to, we did what we call like positions or area swaps, so we worked.

This area, or I always loved going out towards like Bentonville and, you know, the Four Oaks area.

Right. Just because kind of the roots back home, but Right. I still love going out there, man. Right.

Jonathan Breeden: So we have, are they called zones? Patrol areas. Patrol areas. Okay. All right. I used to always call 'em zones. And we have six,

Randy Ackley: eight.

Jonathan Breeden: Eight. We have eight. Okay. How long have we had Eight,

Jonathan Breeden: right? Yeah, no, that's exactly right. And, and, you know. Sheriff's offices traditionally, until you get into a boom county, have not been patrol. Right.

The job of the sheriff is to, I mean, he's got a lot to do, but run the jail. Guard the courthouse, serve the civil papers of the sheriff's department of the court. Also do the involuntary commitments of people that have mental health problems.

And that's really where it started. Now I think it has evolved, particularly when you're having to cover 175,000 people. But am I right about that? Like is as the sheriff's department was originally decided to do that and then all this other stuff of patrolling and what would be more like community policing kind of got added?

Randy Ackley: Yeah, most definitely.

Jonathan Breeden: So, okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So you also worked in property crimes?

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And we've had a lot of those out here, particularly in the Cleveland area. We've had, I mean, every time you turn on next door or whatever, there's car break-ins.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, every week somebody's car's getting broken into, I mean, is there a solution? Like can the sheriff's Department staffed as it is now actually patrol and maybe prevent or all they do is run calls because I think all they do is run calls and there's no actual patrolling.

But I don't know. You work there.

And if especially at nighttime. So that one officer is out there. Let's say it's 30, 45 minutes. This area is potentially uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes.

Jonathan Breeden: Now, isn't there supposed to be. A sergeant in each area or is that, is it one sergeant for two areas? I don't know.

Randy Ackley: It's one sergeant per patrol shift. So there's four patrol shifts.

So you have a lieutenant, a sergeant, eight, eight patrol areas and four Roman cars. One fully staffed, so a total of around 14 deputies per shift.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Ackley: So,

Jonathan Breeden: so those extra cars might not be in area six while he's running whatever report or call he's had to run.

You know, deputies take vacation, people call out sick. They have family emergencies as we were talking about earlier. So there's, you know, we're, we're at a critical staffing level to where we need to grow, and it's, and it's no no fault to anyone. It's just we can't predict that. You know, there's gonna be a $10,000 Inc.

Or not $10,000, but 10,000 people increase here in Johnston County, so, right. You know, those are things that we have to rapidly plan for now and get caught up and then look forward to in the future.

Jonathan Breeden: How many areas. I personally think we need more patrol areas. I've had this debate with the kind of county commissioners, commissioners, like we've not been asked for more patrol areas. If you ask, we'll look at it, but they haven't been asked. How many patrol areas do you think we need?

Randy Ackley: I don't know if we def necessarily need patrol areas. I like, I I don't like the, when we use patrol areas, it's kind of a static map mapping system.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Because what do we know, and you know this as a, as a criminal defense attorney, is that law enforcement we have a use of force continuum. And it's very simple. This is that our presence is a deterrence. So how do, to answer your question earlier, how do we deter those crimes from happening? We have to unfortunately put more people out there to be visible.

They can't be running from one call to the other.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. They need to patrol.

Randy Ackley: Right.

Like, I mean. it's unbelievable. And you live out here in your little neighborhood like I do, and I don't think you realize all the things that the sheriffs have to do. And once again, we're an unincorporated area, so the sheriff's department in Johnston County, at least out here in these areas that look like cities.

Need to function like a city, but they don't have the staffing of a Clayton or a Wilson's Mills. So, I mean, what do we do?

Randy Ackley: Well, there's a couple different things. One, we gotta work with our county commissioners and really start looking at the analytics and the data and saying, what is our call volume? What is our population? What kind of things are we seeing out there? And then establish communications with our businesses out here and saying, Hey, look, what are you guys seeing? That way we can use this to work with county commissioners. Not only that, you've got multiple different areas that you can look at as grants.

That's one of the biggest things that I got. Well, how are we gonna pay for it? We're they've already raised our tax with this re-evaluation and all these other things. But if we know that we have it, for instance, like the cops grants, there's a 25% match.

So the county's paying 25% versus the full hundred percent. I would rather pay 25 versus the whole a hundred.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Randy Ackley: And already know that we need have those needs.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you.

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Jonathan Breeden: So, let's talk about. The jail. We have a brand new jail. We have a brand new 9 1 1 center. Staffing issues there.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Randy Ackley: I think part of it is kind of a double-edged sword is, you know, obviously you're working in a place where people go and, I mean, when you talk to jailers, they're just like, it's horrible. Like nobody wants to go in there, they work. And then you got the mental health crisis that's going on in there as well. So you've gotta make it, you know, I don't wanna say it. A better sell it better, but really you gotta get them an opportunity to grow. And some, a lot of the jailers that I've talked to have said like, Hey, I'm willing to stay here and do this, but I wanna become a deputy.

So is there ways that we can incorporate a career ladder for them that kind of opens a pathway to get into. Law enforcement. So that's just one idea. But there's, you know, we can sit here and throw money at him. I don't know if that's necessarily gonna change.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you.

Randy Ackley: Change the issue. I think we just gotta look at it culturally and say, how do we cultivate?

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Law enforcement after George Floyd and all that mess. What would be your solution to try to fill those openings?

Randy Ackley: Get out. You gotta get out in the community and it starts, you know, obviously making a career path, career ladder, training ladder. Like right now, we don't have a set standard of like, Hey, Jonathan, you're gonna come here, work at the sheriff's office within your first year, you're gonna get X, Y, and Z training by year two, you're gonna get this, this, and this. It gives people a motive to keep motivated at work, I guess you can say.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Ackley: And then. You know, you gotta expand and once we start expanding, you're gonna open up other opportunities for them to grow. Like we don't have a fugitive task force.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Ackley: We don't have a domestic violence unit, so those. We're an interdiction unit. We've got two major interstates that are known drug trafficking and human trafficking avenues, but we don't have anything out there really actively pursuing it.

So those are some of the things that we can make and advertise and make it more advantageous. And then throw in the training aspect as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Now we have the safe team.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Randy Ackley: I would, I wouldn't say that they're a dedicated interdiction unit.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. What then, what are they?

Randy Ackley: I think I would, I would say that, you know, we have, we have a, a speeding problem. We see that all the time as far as the chases that are going on.

So I think they're, they're more concentrated on out there getting traffic and. Do they go out there and get drugs off the, the roads and everything else, but yeah, probably, I mean it, but I'm, I'm talking about a dedicated unit that is out there every single day that they've been sent off to specialized training that are specialized. We used to have that.

Jonathan Breeden: We used to have a drug addiction unit.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Crocker was on it.

Randy Ackley: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: Johnson was on it.

Randy Ackley: Two the best.

They were awesome.

Randy Ackley: No.

Jonathan Breeden: What happened to that?

Randy Ackley: I really don't know.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Ackley: I don't remember.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, that was probably. 20 years ago.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, I haven't done criminal defense in a long time.

Randy Ackley: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: But they were really good.

Randy Ackley: Yeah. They, they were phenomenal. They were, when I say that, they were probably two on the best on the East coast.

I mean, they, they were very well known and very well regarded. Two of the, the most humble individuals that I, I've ever had the chance to work for. I think what had happened with them is, is that they, obviously, in, in professional development, they, they grew outside of that role and moved up and then eventually retired. So we just never filled that void.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you. So you keep talking about training. What training are they not getting that you think you'll be able to provide?

And I think that is something that we need to focus on. So those are just two examples. I mean, you get into Officer Survival, high risk warrant service, you know, there are multiple different things that our guys aren't getting out there that are just, you know, I think it's important.

Jonathan Breeden: So where does that training come from? I mean, the community college does a lot of training.

Randy Ackley: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: But like, are these, I don't know, you bring somebody in and they do a week. I don't know how training for law enforcement works.

Randy Ackley: See, a lot of it goes through the community college. You can go through Salemburg with the North Carolina Justice Academy or you get into specialized training. Like for instance a lot of us in the major crimes when I was there. We were going to the University of Louisville and going through some of the specialized training there. So you've got north Florida University in Jacksonville that we've been to as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Randy Ackley: So there's specialized training out there.

The issue that I think that comes with that is, is that it's a money issue.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Randy Ackley: But I look at it as a way of let's use that as a means to keep them there and show that we're willing to invest. And if they do go somewhere else, that's great because we're encouraging them to grow.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. I got you. I got you. So what are some other things you want to do? I know you've talked about training you, you keep saying modernize the department, bring it into the 21st history. What does that mean?

Randy Ackley: So a lot of it, I mean, like really and truly, you look at our communities right now, you know, I know that there is a need whether it's police, athletic league a cadet programs through the school system just getting back out there into the community and really start cultivating.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So, what other ideas do you have for the sheriff's department? You've talked about better equipment. I've heard you talk about that. What type of better equipment do you think they need?

Randy Ackley: Well, we talked about body cameras and, you know, we put a huge emphasis on that and the sheriff has implemented that. So, I mean, that's, a lot of people want to be upset and say this or you know that but really and truly at the end of the day, what we're asking for and what we're talking about is to affect change.

So, and that's the betterment of not for me or not for him, but it's for the community, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Randy Ackley: You know, we've talked about license plate readers and they have license plate readers. You know I think we need to implement a little bit more of those, just especially in this because as of the theft issues.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right, right, right.

Randy Ackley: Great investigative tools that help us, not that we want to track our citizens, it's just in law enforcement, you know, just as well as I do that if you don't generate a lead. The very good chance of solving a case is down the drain.

Randy Ackley: Yeah. And then ultimately, like work with our businesses. Like we've got Walmart, we've got a lot of different places out here that are, are havens that have a high call volume for theft. Right. So let's cultivate. I identities and, and really ideas with them and, and collaborate and come up with a system that, that is beneficial for everybody.

Randy Ackley: Yeah, a lot. And, and then it's, it is, you got the, the growth around it.

So, I mean, not only do you have the. The initial calls of theft and everything else that ha happened there. But then you've got the apartments that are coming in, the subdivisions that are coming in. So those are all aspects of, and layers of complexity, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. Yeah. Well, and one thing the sheriff said was he wanted to, he used drug seizure money to buy the body cameras.

Randy Ackley: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: How does that work? I mean, he's done a lot of that over the years. Like, I mean, you were on some of those things that led to that. I mean, he bought a big bus, like, like I, you know, I don't understand how that works. Like I guess if you find the money in the car and it sees, the sheriff gets to keep it, I don't know how that works.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well, we're gonna wrap this up here in a second.

Anything else you want to talk about? I think I've hit most of the issues that you've been talking about on the campaign trail. Anything I've not asked you about that you wanna point out about why you should be the sheriff?

Randy Ackley: I think it's just, it's perspective, right? Everything in life is perspective. We have talked about a lot of different things and from the sheriff's perspective, but this is coming from somebody that has actually had boots on the ground in the last five years whether it be investigative and seeing the needs and talking to the guys that are out there on the road.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, I have noticed you've run a very positive campaign. I mean, I've not seen any attacks. I mean, you don't dislike the sheriff. I mean, he employed you for a very long time.

Randy Ackley: No.

Jonathan Breeden: And he hired you three times.

Randy Ackley: Right. And I would hope he would hire me a fourth. Matter of fact, when I sat down and talked to him and told him what my intentions were one of the first things that I told him is that I loved him and I respected him.

And I truly meant that, and that this is not an attack on him. It's just, it's a love for this County. And sometimes whether it's a motivating factor for him or a motivating factor for the community. At the end of the day, I think we are trying to move forward in a direction that is more cohesive and more modern.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well I could understand that last question we ask well, well, how can people get up with you? Always forget that. Always forget how can people get up with you and learn about your campaign?

Randy Ackley: Absolutely. So our campaign website is Ackleyforsheriff.com. We're out very active on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Jonathan Breeden: All right, and the last question we ask everybody, what do you love most about Johnston County? You already talked about the people.

Randy Ackley: Oh yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Almost everybody says the people, but I'll ask you the question anyway.

Randy Ackley: Man. It is, it is honestly.

I would not be the man that I am today without the people of Johnston County. Most definitely they have shown love and grace in, in ways that go beyond measure. And I've been, been blessed. Just blessed beyond measure.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, and most people say they love the people. I love the people. I'm blessed. They've done a lot for me and my business and my growth. I mean, when we got, when we started, like we were both young men now. You got some gray hair. I got a lot less hair. So anyway, so anyway, we'd like to thank Randy Ackley for being our guest on this week's episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

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