The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association has just held its 2024 Spring Meeting in New Hanover County.

That’s an annual learning and networking event for North Carolina sheriffs and sheriffs’ department personnel hosted by the NC Sheriffs’ Association.

The Association annually, among other things, puts together a wish list of changes in state law that members believe will make their jobs easier, and then the group petitions the NC General Assembly to make those changes, usually with a fair degree of success.

Sheriffs and sheriffs’ department personnel and their families from across North Carolina attended the Association’s spring meeting, which is a chance each year for sheriffs to attend various training classes meant to improve their leadership skills and provide valuable resources that will enhance the departments they run. It helps inform them about new law enforcement tools and methods they can use to carry out their everyday duties.

Participants also get the chance to network and collaborate with other sheriffs and top staff from across the state.

That networking allows them to exchange information on what’s working in their county and what’s not.

In the 2024 spring session of the meeting, training classes included addressing the mental-health strains associated with a law enforcement career, effective communication tactics, and best practices for handling some new specialized problems that are showing up in law enforcement today.

In a statement, NC Sheriffs’ Association President Sheriff Darren Campbell of Iredell County explained the nature of the event: “Spring Meeting is our first opportunity of the year to come together for networking and training classes. This week’s curriculum offered us a great opportunity to be more aware of the mental health challenges our fellow law enforcement officers face because of the jobs we do as well as fine-tune our skills related to interacting with members of our communities.”

Founded in 1922, the NC Sheriffs’ Association is a statewide not-for-profit professional and educational organization made up of North Carolina’s 100 sheriffs.

A key goal of the Association is “to strengthen the law enforcement profession and services their offices provide to the people of North Carolina.”

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