• administration
• animal control
• civil process
• communications
• court security
• crime prevention/crime awareness
• crime stoppers
• detention center
• investigations
• patrol
• personnel
• public information officer
• sex offender registry
• warrants
• annual report (PDF)

• Governing
• Departments
• Sheriff's Office
• Investigations

Search:

Capt. Wayne Welch
(828) 250-4444

The Criminal Investigations Division (CID) is the "Sherlock Holmes" division. It is responsible for investigating and solving the cases received from the Patrol division that require further investigation. The Buncombe County Sheriff Office Criminal Investigations Division receives an average of 350 to 400 new cases in a month's time. Each case is treated with timely and respectful procedures and follows guidelines set up by North Carolina and Buncombe County laws.

CID Organization

• Captain: The CID captain oversees the division, handles the administrative tasks, and makes all final decisions.
  
  
• Lieutenant: The CID lieutenant is the captain's assistant. He/She handles any tasks assigned by the captain, and acts as captain in the captain's absence.
  
• Crime Scene Analysts: The Buncombe County Sheriff Office has two (2) crime scene analysts. They are responsible for collecting evidence at the crime scene. The analysts see murders, deaths, and other crime scenes.
  
• Crime Analyst: The crime analyst can be a non-LEO employee. This position is responsible for filing necessary forms with the state, entering criminal records into the state computer system, and researching items requested by a detective
  
• Records Clerk: The records clerk can be a non-LEO employee. He/she is responsible for pulling records when requested, filing all new reports, and maintaining all reports and cases.
  
• Property Control Officer: The property control officer is in charge of taking in new physical evidence, signing out physical evidence, maintaining evidence, and storing the physical evidence.
  
• Office Assistant: The office assistant serves as the Criminal Investigations secretary, and may be a non-LEO employee. He/she prepares reports and case files daily for the detectives, answers the telephone, forwards calls and messages in a timely manner, transcribes, and sorts the mail each day.
  
• CID Sergeants: The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office CID has three sergeants. Each one oversees a different area of criminal investigations, such as sex crimes, breaking and entering, etc.
  
• Detectives: Sixteen CID employees are detectives. Three of these work in the Juvenile/Sex crimes section. Seven detectives work primarily with breaking and entering crimes. The remaining six detectives who work cases in general areas of crime, such as fraud, larcenies, and false pretense.

Detectives perform many tasks in order to solve a case. They may have to surveillance all hours of the day and night, retrieve evidence from all of Buncombe County, interview suspects of crime and witnesses to crime, and travel many hours in order to find the missing pieces to the "puzzle."

Hours of Operation

Monday through Friday
0830 to 1700 hours

• Two detectives and one crime scene analyst work 1530 to 0100 hours during the workweek.
• The weekend shift and the evening shift rotate among the detectives.
• However, Criminal Investigations must be flexible in determining their working hours.
• Detectives often must revise their schedules in order to better serve Buncombe County.

Contact Information

CID
(828) 250-4436

Central Records
(828) 250-4404