Guilford County Sheriff-elect Danny Rogers has his backers and his detractors, however, whatever anyone says about him, this much is true: Even before being sworn in, Rogers has brought a great deal of statewide and even some national attention to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department.
Rogers’ decision to fire nearly 30 department employees before being sworn in has caught the eye of media outlets across the state, the Associated Press wire service and others.
On Tuesday, Nov. 27, the Rhino Times posted the story that Rogers was dismissing the employees including the officer who ran the jails and other key personnel in the department. The story went viral on local social media – outraging many and delighting some – and the News & Record ran the story in the paper on Thursday, Nov. 29.
That story also got significant airtime on all four local TV news shows and was reported by the Raleigh News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer, newspapers in Virginia, the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram and other media outlets.
Roger’s said repeatedly the firings were justified and weren’t that big a deal because there is always some employee turnover when a new sheriff comes into a department, some of the employees were retirees who had been called back and weren’t working full time and there were many in the force who needed to go for good reason but who Sheriff’s BJ Barnes kept on.
While Rogers was making his case in the press, some of his critics on social media stated Rogers was largely settling old scores he had from when he worked for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department years ago.
Several news outlets, including the Rhino Times, have requested more information about the employees who were fired and the Sheriff’s Department said this week that it will respond to those requests next week which will no doubt bring more attention to the firings.
