Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

My name is Stacy Buff. I am a candidate for the Office of Burke County Sheriff. I am a 17 year veteran of law enforcement with 12 years local law enforcement experience and 5 years state law enforcement experience. I currently work for the North Carolina License and Theft Bureau, the investigative branch of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. I am a graduate of Western Piedmont Community College and Lees-McRae College with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. I have also completed various Master’s level classes in Criminal Justice Administration at Appalachian State University. I am a native of Burke County. I grew up in the Salem community. I am married to Amberlie Morgan Buff and we reside just outside of Morganton in Burke County.

My goal is to put more law enforcement on the streets in Burke County. I watched as taxpayer dollars have been used to employ more and more special positions at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office. These positions primarily work 8AM to 5PM, Monday through Friday, while the men and women patrolling the county working twelve hour shifts pay the price. Over the last twelve years, the patrol division has not increased, even though taxpayer dollars have been used to add personnel.

I will utilize the existing budget and personnel to add officers to patrol. I will also increase the number of patrol districts from three to seven. This will ultimately provide a more community oriented policing concept to the Burke County Sheriff's Office and decrease response times. Deputies will be more visible in areas that rarely see a sheriff's patrol car.

It is time to take politics out of law enforcement and provide the citizens of Burke County with positive, professional, polite, and hard working law enforcement officers free of political influence. It's time for a Sheriff of Burke County to have a good working relationship with all county commissioners instead of a certain group because of their political association.

I vow to work with everyone. That is why I am running as an unaffiliated candidate for office.