Public and commissioners clash over sheriff oversight, chairman's arrest-statements draw criticism

A public commenter and multiple county commissioners clashed over the Rockingham County Sheriff's office and the conduct of Board Chairman Kevin Berger at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 4 in Eden. The exchange included a public allegation that Chairman Berger misstated drug-arrest numbers, commissioners' expressions of support for deputies, and discussion of oversight items including jail deaths and insurance impacts.

Kevin Southard, a resident who signed up for public comment, told the board that Chairman Kevin Berger had repeatedly cited the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data to claim there were zero drug-trafficking arrests by the sheriff's office in 2022 and 2023. Southard said those statements were misleading and provided his own spreadsheet of county arrest records to the county manager. "That claim is not just inaccurate, it's patently false," Southard said, and he read annual counts from sheriff's-office records he said he had obtained: 234 drug arrests in 2021 (11 trafficking), 281…