Another experienced law enforcement officer has joined the Rowan County Sheriff’s
Department.Dillon C.
Broome, a 23-year veteran of the Salisbury Police Department, accepted a position as
captain in Sheriff George Wilhelm’s administration.
Wilhelm said he offered Broome the
position because of his extensive experience with the patrol division. Broome began
working for the Salisbury Police Department in 1976. There, he held positions of patrol
officer, detective, sergeant and most recently, district commander.
Broome said two of his “real
successful endeavors” at the Police Department include the Selected Area For
Enforcement program and Burglary Oriented Special Squad. In both situations, Broome built
on his management experience and police work — two strengths Sheriff Wilhelm was
looking for.
“We are reorganizing so we
would establish a closer relationship with management,” Wilhelm said of his
department.
“Dillon fits into the new
structure because of his experience. Before, we only had two captains; one supervised 50
people and the other one was over 100. Now, we have a detention captain, patrol and courts
captain and a support services captain,” Wilhelm said.
The move for Broome was a hard
one.
“I’ve been at the Police
Department for 23 years,” Broome said. “I moved in right after it was built. I
feel like I had ownership there.
“Now when I go down there I
am treated like a visitor and it is just weird.”
Wilhelm knew Broome from their
work with both law enforcement agencies, and the sheriff saw something in Broome that he
liked.
“The sheriff actually made me
decide. He came to my house a couple of times, and explained what he was looking
for,” Broome said. “The move was something me and my wife had to discuss.
I’ve worked with most of the people anyway and they have really welcomed me.”
Fortunately, the departments are
similar, Broome said.
“There are a few differences;
I thought there’d be more. Some of the personnel situations are the same,”
Broome said.
The captain explained his move to
the sheriff’s department as a good career move.
“I’m not sure I am
totally for community policing. I am more law-enforcement geared, I think that fits in
with the county aspect,”Broome said.
“I felt like I was doing more
social work (at the Police Department) than law enforcement work. What the sheriff was
doing sounded like the direction I was in when I first started in law enforcement.”
Broome said he liked his former
boss, Police Chief Chris Herring. “As far as personality goes, we got a long real
well,” Broome said.
He said he has only five years to
go before retirement and he looks forward to working at the Sheriff’s Department.
“Over here we make decisions
as a team and I am not used to that. All major decisions are usually made as a consensus.
Of course, the sheriff has the final say, but usually we all work on it together. Because
George has so much management experience, we talk out most of our major decisions.”
Broome looks forward to overseeing
the 51 full-time and 48 part-time officers in the Sheriff’s Department’s patrol
division. “I am satisfied with my position, as far as going up the scale, and look
forward to learning more about the Sheriff’s Department.” |
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