Intro: This article is from a Red Carpet Interview with Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance. She is the first Black female sheriff elected in North Carolina and the only female currently serving as sheriff in the state. She was first elected in 2018. This article was created based on the interview held in February 2026 before the primary election.

Well, welcome back Sheriff Dance to the red carpet. Glad to be back here in Pitt County with you. Tell people who you are.

I am Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance. I am out here at the polls advocating for myself, of course, and looking for support from my community. I encourage people to come out, number one, to vote, to exercise your right to vote.

Secondarily, to vote for me. If you think I've done a good job, I'd ask that you vote for me. And so, it's just important who your share is in your community.

It's important who has that seat at the table. And then also while they're at the table, what it is that they're doing for the betterment of our community. And I think if you look at my record, you will see that I've been very busy at work and trying to make our community better holistically, making it safer and providing resources to those who find themselves incarcerated.

The two things can be done at once.

Do you want to highlight any particular accomplishments just to sort of remind people, hey, here are a couple of takeaways that you may not know about?

Absolutely.

So, there were so many that I'll try to just get to a few. Right now, I'm very focused on mental health issues in the community, but more specifically in the detention center because I meet people where they're at. It's unfortunate that because of the lack of mental health that's out in the community, people often end up in my detention center.

I had to be creative to find ways to address the mental health issues by meeting them where they're at. I had, in particular, the RISE program that's in the detention center, that's a partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, in which we restore people back to capacity. It gives them back the dignity to make decisions that's going to affect the rest of their lives.

And everyone deserves that dignity. We are also focused on people in detention dealing with the lack of resources. And so, I have implemented the GED program inside of the detention center, some vocational skills that people get to get certifications for.

It's giving them the tools that go into their toolbox. Now it's going to be up to them to use them. But when they leave the detention center, they are no longer leaving and just being told to go forth and be great.

We are giving them the tools that help them to accomplish that. I have been able to advocate for our deputies to get raises for the deputies to put them on par. It makes me, it gives me the ability to be competitive with local agencies in the hiring process.

I'm most, one of the things that I'm most proud of is the diversity at our agency now. I want my agency to look like our community. You will see more diversity at our sheriff's office than has ever been before.

And in particular, I have so many women coming. I think that that's because, you know, for so long, I never had someone that I can look up to that looked like me.

That matters.

Absolutely.

And it matters that, you know, I can look at and see how they led or lead. And, and so now I feel like a lot of these women are coming now because they can see it.

And if you can see it, you can be it. And so, I'm happy to be leading the way as a woman, you know, I'm the only currently sitting female sheriff in the state of North Carolina. And let me remind you, I'm the first and, and I hope that I won't be the last.

It's important what I do while I'm at this table, because then it affects those who come behind me. Sorry, it's going to be an expectation that you're going to have to do what I'm doing, you know, to keep that seat. But I think I've earned the seat.

I've earned that. And I will continue to do what's in the best interest of our community and the detention centers. And so, you know, when I came to the Sheriff's office, initially in 2018, when I first won, we didn't even have body cameras.

To me, that was not transparency. We needed to be transparent. And that was the first thing that I fought for were body cameras.

We now absolutely have body cameras. That accomplishes a lot. It keeps, it keeps the whole situation honest, because we can look at it in real time.

And so that's very important. There's a whole lot I've accomplished, you know, programs that deal with not only mental health, but the co-occurring substance use. I have great stories, you know, from people who have gone through it that I've run into since being in the program.

One in particular, recently, I talked about, he is now about to receive his master's in clinical social work. And so, planting that seed, you know, you should invest in people, because these are people that you're investing in, who are going to go out and be great and invest back into their community. That's an investment into an investment that will be an investment for the community.

So yeah, there's a return on that.

There's absolutely return on that investment. But there's still more to do.

There's more to be done. And that's what I hope to accomplish.

And you also have a new administration building. How is that working for you?

We have never had a building of our own, a home of our own, you know. I've clicked my heels together three times, many times and said that there was no place like home. And now I can literally say that we have a home.

We thank our county commissioners and county management for making that possible. And we're all in one place. The communication flows a whole lot greater.

I get to see people. We were in five different buildings. So, efficiency is a whole lot better.

So, we're just excited about the direction that we're going. And I tell people often, it's just not about me.

Statutorily, the sheriff is responsible for a lot of things, but the sheriff can't do it by him or herself. And so, all of the people who work for me, help me to accomplish those goals. I got to give them a shout out, great team, great employees.

And I often say, hey, I'm just the one driving the bus in the direction that I want to go with my vision. But the ones, the wheels and the tires and the steering wheel, that's the people who make the bus go. So let me give them a shout out as well.

Well, thank you so much for coming back on the red carpet. I'm glad you were able to share so much information with everyone.

And I hope that they will take that into account as they're going to the polls. I tell people all the time, sure, there are a lot of people out there who are making statements about people and sharing their insight about what they think, but it is much better to hear directly from the candidate themselves. So, thank you.

Thank you.