Title: Buncombe County Sheriff · Democrat In this role since: December 2018 (elected Nov 2018; re-elected 2022) Current term ends: December 2026 Next voter decision: Nov 3, 2026: seeking a 3rd term vs Gary Parris (R); had no primary challenger · Election 2026
Surveillance record
The architect of mass surveillance in Buncombe County. His office built the region’s Fusus real-time intelligence center around 2022: ~1,800–2,000 cameras, including roughly 1,500 inside county schools, plus 20 stationary and 2 mobile plate readers, with 59 people authorized to run Flock searches. Asheville paid $30K/year for access starting 2023; the city’s RTIC is this network’s expansion. (Citizen Times via Yahoo · Mountain Xpress)
He publicly credits the network for county crime reductions (WLOS), claims the state’s own SBI data undermines: his “15% countywide drop” was actually his unincorporated-county slice; countywide violent crime rose 12.7% the same year (a point first made publicly by Chuck Edwards, who later funded Asheville’s RTIC); by 2024 his jurisdiction’s crime was rising against a falling state baseline, with burglary +42%; and camera-less Catawba County outperformed Buncombe by 17 points over the same window. No independent evaluation of his RTIC has ever been conducted. Full data workup with SBI tables: Their Claims vs The Record. His office touts a Fusus advisory board (“the only sheriff’s office in the state” with one), though its membership, powers, and minutes are not public.
The other side of his record: limiting ICE
The record should hold this honestly: Miller has taken documented stands limiting federal reach: questioning ICE detainers on constitutional grounds and barring ICE from county schools without court orders. (Bolts) The tension is structural: the network he built is exactly the kind of infrastructure that outlives any one sheriff’s restraint. A successor inherits the cameras; the ICE commitments are his alone.
The question for him
Will he publish the Fusus network’s search audit logs and the advisory board’s minutes? What binds his ICE commitments after 2030? Faces Gary Parris in November; see Election 2026.
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026