Sheriff-elect stresses continuity as he prepares to take reins from long-time predecessor
More than a week has elapsed since Shannon Long’s upset win in the race for Alamance County’s sheriff. Yet, this longshot-turned-sheriff-elect admits that he still hasn’t gotten used to the title that he managed to corral at the polls.
“I’m a strong advocate for respect – as far as respecting the individuals who put on the badge and the uniform. I’m humbled to have this responsibility to run the largest law enforcement in Alamance County, and I look forward to working with the people who put on the badge every day.”
– Sheriff-elect Shannon Long
“I’ve never been a person about titles,” he confessed. “I get called ‘pastor’ most of all. But it feels good to be a part of this moment of change.”
In fact, it was his pastoral duties that occupied the incoming sheriff on Wednesday when his Haw River church, Beyond Measure Ministries, held its annual Veterans Day celebration. Long was in the front ranks to welcome the grey-bearded old soldiers, gnarled ex-sailors, and bifocaled airmen who streamed into the event, and it was his appearance on stage that signaled the start of the ceremony.
Even before the election, Long had assured The Alamance News that he had made provisions to hand over the church’s leadership should he prevail – along with the administration of the barber shop and barbering school that represent his other two professional obligations. Now that his electoral coup has materialized, Long has been struggling to complete the divestment amid the marathon of conferences and high-level meetings that await any new sheriff before he’s sworn into office.
In preparation for his oath of office next month, the 46-year-old sheriff elect has begun to assemble a transition team that will include, among others, Mebane’s retired police chief Terry Caldwell.
Long has also met with the county’s outgoing sheriff Terry S. Johnson to discuss the transition from Johnson’s epoch-defining 24 years at the helm.
For many area residents, Long’s victory over Johnson is particularly noteworthy for being the first time that a black sheriff has been elected to the county’s top-ranking law enforcement position. Long is also the first independent candidate to secure this office, which had been in the firm grip of the GOP ever since Johnson’s own election in 2002.
Although notionally unaffiliated with any political party, Long ran for sheriff with the full backing of Alamance County’s Democrats, and he was swept into power as part of the “blue tsunami” that broke the GOP’s stranglehold over many local, state, and federal offices. Yet, Long’s electoral success didn’t come without its share of hard work.
A one-time Democrat, Long attributes his unaffiliated status to an oversight with his voter registration when he moved from his native Orange County to Alamance County about six years ago. He nevertheless decided to embrace this new nonpartisan identity, which put him at a bit of disadvantage when he decided to make a bid for the position of sheriff.
In lieu of a partisan primary, state law obligated Long to collect the signatures of over 4,700 area voters in order to get on the ballot in this year’s general election. Rather than align himself with one of the parties, Long decided to take on this challenge and mounted a petition drive that proved every bit as arduous as any electoral campaign.
“Because I felt the call to do this, I didn’t blink,” he recalled. “But it was a hurdle. A lot of red tape…A lot of folks signed the petition but a lot of signatures were kicked out. Some signed twice without telling us. Some weren’t registered, and some were from different counties.”
Long nevertheless had more than 5,000 valid signatures by the time his petition was due on March 3 – the date of this year’s primary elections. In the meantime, Johnson managed to fend off two Republican rivals during the GOP’s primary, which set the stage for his showdown with Long in November.
The subsequent campaign for the general election posed a whole host of new trials for Long. For one thing, the unaffiliated newcomer was at a stark disadvantage in fundraising. By the end of the third quarter, he had assembled a war chest of $67,920.43 – barely a sixth of the $364,471.07 that the incumbent had raised by the same point in the campaign.
An Orange County native who moved to Alamance County just six years ago, Long also had to overcome the deep roots of a homegrown incumbent, who has spent much of his life in the unincorporated community of Snow Camp. Finally, there was Johnson’s five decades of law enforcement experience, which included a career with the SBI before he became sheriff. Long, in contrast, had spent less than a decade in the fulltime employ of Orange County’s sheriff, serving first as a detention officer, and then as a patrol deputy, before his final “10-4” as a school resource officer in 2010.
Long nevertheless had a natural support base thanks to his proprietorship of the Mebane-based Beyond Measure Barbering Institute as well as his eponymous ministry in the town of Haw River. He also relied on his wife Tiffany, his children Asher, Josiah, and Shamya, and his own religious faith to carry him through the highs and lows of the race.
When the dust finally settled after last Tuesday’s election, Long came out on top with 52.41 percent of the vote – as opposed to the 47.59 percent that Johnson was able to pinch.
Since the election, the incoming sheriff has faced the unenviable task of winning over the rank-and-file in a department that has been saluting the same commander for nearly the past quarter century.
“I know it’s a time of uncertainty because sheriff Johnson has been in office for 24 years,” he went on to acknowledge. “I had a two-hour conversation with Terry Johnson since the election…and I said to him ‘could you do me the favor of telling them I won’t release anybody if they don’t need to be released.’”
Long is emphatic that he has the same commitment to pursuing the lawbreaker and protecting the innocent that Johnson has touted during his tenure as sheriff. He concedes that he lacks his predecessor’s zealous commitment to immigration enforcement, which had been key issue in this year’s campaign. Long is emphatic, however, that he is no soft touch on illegal immigration even if he doesn’t believe it’s as closely connected to violent crime as Johnson has claimed.
“I’m a fact checker, and the statistical data says that the immigrant community doesn’t comprise that high a crime rate,” he stressed. “Now with that being said, I’m all for removing criminals from the community, and it doesn’t matter where you are from.”
Long said that he has no plans to revive the 287(g) program, which once gave the sheriff’s office a direct role in immigration enforcement. More recently, the sheriff’s office has leased jail space to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement until Johnson himself nixed this arrangement earlier this year after changes in state law forced him to prioritize the detention of local inmates.
Long insists that he’d be amenable to reviving the county’s working relationship with ICE under the right circumstances.
“My plan is not to pick back up the 287(g) agreement,” he said. “But to see how we can reform these agreements, and from what I hear from the President on down, reform is taking place.”
Long has also laid out a vision for a “liaison team” to make inroads with local Latinos. His ultimate objective is to form a “partnership” that will give this segment of the population more of a “buy in,” without losing sight of the fact that some of these individuals may be in the country illegally.
The incoming sheriff is, likewise, intent on reviving some of the rehabilitation programs that have fallen into abeyance at the county’s detention center. He’d also wants to improve the jail’s food service – a goal that he said Johnson had told him he would’ve pursued if he had the support of Alamance County’s commissioners.
But at the end of the day, Long believes that it’s the men and women who serve under the sheriff who’ll elevate the department over the coming four years.
“I’m a strong advocate for respect – as far as respecting the individuals who put on the badge and the uniform,” he said. “I’m humbled to have this responsibility to run the largest law enforcement in Alamance County, and I look forward to working with the people who put on the badge every day.”
