For nearly a quarter of a century, the office of Alamance County’s sheriff has been under the command of Terry S. Johnson, a 76-year-old retired SBI agent who has retained his grip on this elected position since 2002.
But even as the septuagenarian sheriff returns to the campaign trail ahead of November’s election, a new generation of law enforcement professionals has climbed through the ranks, bringing their youthful exuberance, demographic diversity, and fresh ways of thinking to the upper echelon of Johnson’s agency.
Foremost among these rising stars at the sheriff’s office is Montrese Dodson, a one-time detention officer who now serves as the major in charge of the agency’s administrative functions.
A 47-year-old native of Danville, Virginia, Dodson is the first woman as well as the first black person to attain the rank of major within the local sheriff’s office. In the context of the departmental bureaucracy, she and the agency’s other two majors yield pride of place only to Jackie Fortner, the sheriff’s chief deputy, as well as to Johnson himself.
As the sheriff’s go-to-person for all things administrative, Dodson’s sphere of influence encompasses training and standards, officer certification, and personnel matters like hiring and payroll.
Prior to her appointment as major, Dodson had a more direct role over human resources as the sheriff’s captain over personnel. This position put her on the frontlines of the ongoing battle to recruit and retain a high caliber force for the agency. It also left her the unenviable task of weeding out those who don’t quite make the cut for a career in law enforcement.
“A lot of times, people who apply for jobs don’t have a very good idea of what they’ve applied for. We also end up teaching them about other things – like how to read a paycheck or that it isn’t a good idea to fill out their application in pink ink.”
– Newly-promoted major Montrese Dodson
“A lot of times, people who apply for jobs don’t have a very good idea of what they’ve applied for,” Dodson recalled in an interview earlier this week. “We also end up teaching them about other things – like how to read a paycheck or that it isn’t a good idea to fill out their application in pink ink.”
In Dodson’s case, it was a rather unconventional path that led to her own application with Alamance County’s sheriff in 2019. By that point, the future major had accumulated nearly two decades of experience as a jailer in Guilford County, and she had risen to the rank of captain under Guilford’s longtime sheriff B.J. Barnes. After his ouster in 2018, Barnes turned to his ally in Alamance County to secure Dodson’s future employment prospects – as Johnson recalled when he reflected on the future major’s career earlier this week.
“When sheriff Barnes left office, he called me and said I needed to hire her – that she’ll be the best hire you’ll ever make. And everything he said was the truth.”
– Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson
“When sheriff Barnes left office,” he recounted, “he called me and said I needed to hire her – that she’ll be the best hire you’ll ever make. And everything he said was the truth.”
Dodson went on to accept a job offer from Johnson, even though it meant reduction in rank from captain to sergeant. She nevertheless clawed her way back through the ranks, serving as a lieutenant in the detention division before her promotion to captain. Through it all, Dodson was propelled by a work ethic
“I’ve always worked very hard. I had to; I was the middle child with two brothers, and my father instilled in me that I needed to work hard at everything I did.”
– Major Montrese dodson
“I’ve always worked very hard,” she explained. “I had to; I was the middle child with two brothers, and my father instilled in me that I needed to work hard at everything I did.”
In addition to the virtue of hard work, Dodson acknowledges that her time in human resources has given her a deep and abiding appreciation for the need to balance personal and professional commitments. In her own case, these extracurricular interests include a passion for gardening and a desire to expand her educational horizons.
Dodson pursued the latter avocation at Liberty University, where she’s working on a PhD in criminal justice and leadership. The major also holds a post as adjunct professor at Anderson University, a private, Baptist college in South Carolina. What’s left of her time is devoted to family and friends, including her 23-year-old daughter and her fiancé Kenneth.
To plug the hole left by Dodson’s promotion, the sheriff’s office has turned to Mark Dockery, who had worked under the newly-minted major when she served as the agency’s personnel chief.
A 36-year-old Reidsville native, Dockery had also followed a somewhat unorthodox trajectory to wind up working at the sheriff’s office in Alamance County.
After dropping out of high school at the age of 16, the future captain enrolled at Rockingham Community College, where he obtained an associate’s degree that he initially planned to parlay into a bachelor’s in computer science. Although a natural with computers, Dockery decided that he’d rather not spend the rest of his life behind a keyboard. So, with the aplomb of a true man of action, he scrapped his original career plans and signed up for a six-month course of Basic Law Enforcement Training.
With his slender build and unusually youthful appearance, Dockery stood out from his fellow cadets, and he inevitably drew the attention of Johnson when the sheriff made a recruiting foray into Rockingham County in the spring of 2011.
“He looked like he was in high school. I talked to the guy who ran BLET, and he said ‘he’s one of the best students we’ve had,’ and so I went up to him and said ‘young man, do you want a job?’ And he said ‘yes, sir.’”
– Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson
“He looked like he was in high school,” the sheriff recalled. “I talked to the guy who ran BLET, and he said ‘he’s one of the best students we’ve had, and so I went up to him and said ‘young man, do you want a job?’ And he said ‘yes, sir.’”
In an ironic turn of events, Dockery found that his new employer was more eager to put him behind a computer than in a patrol car.
“When I got here, the guy who was their technology expert had just left. I just wanted to be a regular cop. But fate pushes us in the direction it wants us to go.”
– Newly-promoted captain Mark Dockery
“When I got here, the guy who was their technology expert had just left,” he reflected. “I just wanted to be a regular cop. But fate pushes us in the direction it wants us to go.”
Alongside his professional duties, Dockery has continued to advance his education beyond his associate’s degree. He now boasts three bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice, philosophy, and physics as well as a master’s in executive leadership.
Meanwhile, Dodson’s own elevation to one of the agency’s top-ranking posts has served as a crash course in another aspect of leadership – namely, her newfound influence as the first black woman to hold the position of major at the sheriff office in Alamance County.
Dodson insists that her new role as a trailblazer isn’t one that she had envisioned when she embarked on her career 25 years ago.
“I never thought about it until I was promoted,” she added. “But now, I have an opportunity to pave the way for others to go as far as they can. It’s like I’m right at the moon, reaching for the stars.”
