Buncombe sheriff recruits new graduates to fill staffing shortages

Buncombe County’s sheriff’s office is leaning hard on new graduates to help cover a staffing crunch that officials say has left roughly 60 jobs open across patrol and detention. Sheriff Quentin E. Miller’s office is trying to rebuild fast enough to protect daily service while keeping up with a countywide hiring freeze that left 183 positions vacant after Hurricane Helene, including 64 in the sheriff’s office.

The shortage is not just a personnel problem inside the courthouse walls. County officials have said the vacancies affect patrol coverage, jail operations, case follow-up and the office’s ability to respond to routine public safety needs, a strain that lands on deputies who are already carrying more work across Buncombe County and downtown Asheville.

One part of the answer is Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, where the Basic Law Enforcement Training program is designed to prepare students for entry-level law-enforcement work under standards set by the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Training and Standards Commission. The current academy cycle accepted applications through June 12 for a class beginning July 6 and ending in mid-December, giving the sheriff’s office a pipeline of recruits who can move from school into sworn service.

Human resources manager Kendra Cowan said the office is also trying to shorten the path from applicant to hire because the usual background process can take a long time. To speed recruiting, the department has used career fairs, job fairs, fast-track hiring procedures and even recruiting from the recently closed Craggy Correctional Center. Deputies’ vehicles now carry QR codes so prospective applicants can scan and see open positions, a sign that the hiring push has become more visible in public spaces across the county.

The office says cadets are paid employees while they attend the academy, which can help recruits who need income during training. That matters in a county where Buncombe Government says its workforce averages about 1,600 employees and where the Helene-era hiring freeze hit frontline operations well beyond law enforcement.

The county’s detention facility in downtown Asheville holds people for local, state and federal criminal-justice agencies, so staffing gaps there can ripple beyond one department. The sheriff’s office says it is the largest law-enforcement agency in Western North Carolina, which raises the stakes for every new hire and every empty post.

A-B Tech says the pipeline has worked before. In December 2025, 20 BLET graduates finished the program and all 20 had already secured jobs with local law-enforcement agencies. At another June graduation event, 28 cadets completed BLET and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office was among the agencies welcoming new officers. For Buncombe, the challenge now is whether new graduates can close the gap quickly enough, or whether the county is simply shifting the burden onto training, supervision and the next generation of deputies.