Rutherford County, NC Sheriff Ellenburg discusses police & policy
A community awareness forum led by Mayor Carol Pritchett was held July 19 at Lake Lure town hall.
The Cops & Congress SUMMER SAFETY SERIES was made possible with support from WIN Home Inspection, forestcity.wini.com.
Sheriff James Aaron Ellenburg spoke at Lake Lure town hall on July 19 at a community awareness forum. He says the biggest crime and safety concerns are drugs, homelessness, and mental health issues. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office staff are missing critical equipment, due to the county budget, which is recommended by the county manager and approved by county commissioners. “We’re a tier one economically distressed county, we get told, but crime doesn’t stop,” Ellenburg said.
Click above or here to listen to the conversation on YouTube.
Editor’s note: Assistive technology by otter.ai transcribed the conversation. It was not edited in any way.
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About Annie Dance
Annie Dance has been a journalist for over 20 years and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a concentration in Journalism from Manhattan College. She completed 42 credits for a Master of Arts in Communication degree at Fairfield University. She has been published in local, national, and international publications, including Hearst newspapers and websites, CTInsider.com, NewsTimes.com, and others. She is the Founding Editor of Western NC Deaf Community, a public Facebook group, where she covers deaf issues and leads discussions for ways deaf people can get better access to news and information in the 19 counties of western North Carolina. She was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss as a child and is an accessibility advocate, especially for the use of closed captioning.
Dance has experience in government affairs, media, and public policy. She is a registered unaffiliated voter and strives for fairness, truth and accuracy.
Dance has family roots in Raleigh. She served on local and state commissions in Connecticut for several years prior to moving to Rutherford County, North Carolina in 2020. She worked on local, state, and federal Republican candidates’ campaigns, including Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District.
She aims to shine a light on important issues and hold officials accountable with Cops & Congress.