Haywood County will have a new sheriff for the second time this decade.
Mark Mease, a Republican, and Tyler Howell, a Democrat, are Haywood County natives whose families go back generations in Western North Carolina. Both men have also worked full-time law enforcement jobs while campaigning. Perhaps the most striking similarity is that both prefer to shun the political angling required during a campaign — at least during the General Election — saying they would prefer if the office of sheriff wasn’t even partisan.
The candidates, who’ve pledged to each other and voters to refrain from mudslinging during the General Election campaign, are instead trying to run on their merits and ideas. The winner will replace current Sheriff Bill Wilke.
Here’s a look at what they said during their interviews with The Smoky Mountain News.
Mark Mease
Mease defeated incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilke in March’s General Election with 57.8% of the vote. After working for 15 years in various trades, he got a degree in criminal justice and was an EMT and fireman before going into law enforcement and serving 21 years at HCSO in a variety of capacities. He retired as a captain over patrol in January 2023 when Wilke took office and now works investigations for the Cherokee Indian Police Department (CIPD).
During the heated primary campaign, Mease ran against the current administration. Drawing contrast was the goal. During the General Election against a candidate with no political experience, it’s about telling voters what his administration would look like.
Mease feels like the Primary campaign offered some lessons learned. In a relatively small county, a successful campaign isn’t as much about littering a roadside with signs; it’s about getting out into the community and letting people know who you are.
Another difference is that during the Primary, Mease was working to reach Republicans, and now, he’s talking to Democrats and unaffiliated voters, as well. He said he’s spoken with several Democrats who want to vote for him because of his experience over the relatively young Howell.
Much of Mease’s career has involved narcotics investigations, a part of policing that is becoming more important as new drugs, trafficking organizations, and methods crop up every year. He believes in a simple “two-pronged approach” to combatting the evolving issue. First is enforcement — investigating large-scale traffickers who bring the most common drugs, the likes of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, into the area through gaining intelligence and building cases, while also keeping street-level dealing under control.
Second is prevention and treatment. Mease said that while he doesn’t know everything Wilke has in place for addiction recovery in his detention center, he believes that offering mental health services and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) are the first steps. MAT uses the likes of suboxone to reduce the need to use dangerous opioids. He would like to work with the county health department to investigate w hat specific solutions are most promising.
“That helps them get the monkey off their back,” he said, adding that when people kick their additions, the recidivism rate should drop significantly.
But recovery and education can’t just stop when someone leaves the detention center and can return to old habits. Wilke has made the jail ministry a cornerstone of his administration, and the work done in the jail often continues once someone is let out when their sentence is up or they make bail. Mease wants to offer both peer support and MAT outside of the confines of the detention center.
“If we can keep the person off of the drugs and then get them to where they’re benefiting society and bring something to the table, they’re a benefit instead of a burden,” he said.
During his time with HCSO under former Sheriff Greg Christopher, Mease had a leadership role on the county’s Unified Narcotics Taskforce (UNIT), made up of officers and deputies from his office, Waynesville Police Department, Canton Police Department, and Maggie Valley Police Department. Mease wants to maintain strong ties with other law enforcement that operates in the region, including signing a memorandum of understanding with CIPD for mutual aid.
“We’re not on an island … you can get more intel because when the more people that come in that say, ‘Hey, I know this person, I know this information,’ it just is a force multiplier when you’re dealing with that problem,” he said.
Like other counties across Western North Carolina, Haywood has staffing issues the detention center. A tough job with meager pay makes recruiting and retention a constant battle. The new detention center has more beds, but that can only go so far if there aren’t the people to staff it. Mease said his first step would be assessing the problem — finding out why detention officers are leaving — and then developing concrete solutions.
Wilke honors Immigration and Customs (ICE) detainers, as did Christopher before him. Mease said he would continue that practice in accordance with state and federal laws but added that he’d treat all inmates with dignity and respect. While ICE and Border Patrol have drawn heavy scrutiny for heavy-handed operations in larger cities, there hasn’t been as significant a presence in Western North Carolina. Mease said he would provide support to such operations but added that he would also ensure that any law enforcement operating in the county treats people with the same dignity he said inmates in the detention center would see.
Another hot-button issue is automated license plate readers (ALPRs), specifically Flock cameras. There are at least eight in Haywood County. Opposition to ALPRs and associated databases have galvanized many across the political spectrum. While that opposition hasn’t been as vocal in Haywood as it has nearby counties, it’s hard to escape the scrutiny.
Mease believes Flock cameras are valuable tools, but he also has concerns over how data is stored and used. While there have been instances of abuse reported at some agencies, he thinks those can be avoided if there are means for accountability, including termination and criminal charges. However, he also said that he will let the people weigh in, and those opinions will be reflected in his policy.
“If it’s not something the people of Haywood County want, it’s not something we’re going to have,” he said.
When Wilke came into office, he drew scrutiny for a series of decisions that resulted in several deputies leaving (some were terminated and some quit) when he took office. It’s the prerogative of the sheriff to choose whom he employs. Likewise, the sheriff has a lot of latitude on policy decisions that can shift the office’s culture. Mease said that while he doesn’t want to poach personnel from other agencies, he wants to give current deputies a chance to stay on while also potentially welcoming back those who left after Wilke donned the badge.
“The door is going to be open, unless something’s happened between their time they were employed and now,” he said. “Most of them I knew were very good people.”
Mease said he can use his experience at HCSO to get up to speed on the different operations, from dispatch to courthouse and jail security to civil process. However, he also pointed out that he won’t have all the solutions on day one. He wants to lean on deputies and non-sworn staff for ideas.
During Wilke’s tenure, a few incidents have put the rumor mill in overdrive, such as a confrontation between a truck driver and an off-duty deputy at a Canton landfill that resulted in a viral video, national attention, and an ongoing lawsuit . Mease said the key to managing those incidents is to be transparent, as much as allowable, and getting out in front of anything that may give the public cause to lose trust in the office.
“If you’re going to eat crow, you better eat it when it’s warm,” he said.
Tyler Howell
Howell has been in law enforcement 18 years, all with the Waynesville Police Department. He’s worked several roles including patrol, investigations, and the tactical anti-crime unit. Now, he’s a masseter officer in the community policing and public relations division, a role he said has brought him closer to the people he serves.
Recently, a civil suit was filed against him alleging he used excessive force against a suspect in Waynesville over three years ago. However, he has pushed back against the suit. Waynesville Police Chief David Adams told SMN that no complaint was filed with the department and that the lawsuit was the first he’d heard of the incident.
Unlike Mease, Howell didn’t have a primary opponent but has campaigned throughout the year for the General Election. He’s enjoyed the process, as it has brought him into contact with people who have a variety of concerns and experiences. Like Mease, he said he’s found that some members of the other party have been interested in his campaign, and some have even pledged their vote.
[Howell served as a part-time deputy at HCSO for five years, but without the full-time experience, he felt there were elements of the job he wanted to study, including detention center operations.] He considers that more efforts need to be made to maintain full staffing for the jail, as well as every other division.
“All these priorities you’re looking at look great, but if you don’t have the manpower to do them, you’re not going to accomplish any of that,” he said.
Howell wants to look at the office’s financial situation and free up more money where possible, but he said many financial problems leading to staffing shortages can be alleviated with grants. It’s all about being competitive, and Howell would like to hire a grant writer. Getting access to that money on the state and federal level would take the potential burden of tax hikes off residents’ shoulders.
While Howell doesn’t think it’s practical to have an intra-county taskforce like the UNIT again, he wants to focus on building relationships with other surrounding agencies, as well as any that could operate in the region, including federal and state.
Like Mease, Howell wants to use a jail ministry and MAT to help inmates struggling with addiction. Howell added that he’s also a supporter of the county’s recovery court, which offers offenders a path to both beating addiction and seeing some criminal charges wiped off their record. The program has given several people a fresh start, an opportunity to become productive members of society.
“I’m a huge proponent in in these recovery courts and taking it a step further to help with mental trauma and mental health issues,” he said.
Howell said he would honor ICE detainers, as required by the state, even if some other sheriffs don’t. Likewise, he cited a recently passed law saying that any legitimate request for help made by any agency operating lawfully would be fulfilled.
Flock cameras are a valuable tool made possible by new technology, Howell said. But he added that, like other law enforcement tools — patrol vehicles, firearms, and other means of surveillance — they can be abused. Policy must be crafted around that reality and followed up with accountability, he said. He would let case law on things like Flock cameras and law enforcement agencies’ responsibility to honor ICE detainers play out in court and thusly craft policies.
Howell pledged that anyone employed by the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office, should he win, would be able to keep their job. On the flipside, he said that while some have asked about getting hired for administrative positions, he’s not promising anyone anything since he doesn’t want to “walk into that place owing anybody anything.” The most important thing, he said, is that he has good people around him. He cited a piece of wisdom from former Waynesville Police Chief Bill Hollingsed.
“You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with,” he said, adding that he already has people in mind for his command staff, should they accept the positions.
Another piece of wisdom Howell said Hollingsed imparted on him is to always get in front of things. After an incident that may draw public attention happens, it’s best not to let “whispers and political rumors” fill the void. To wit, shortly after the lawsuit was filed against him, Howell released a video on social media denying the claims.
“We will be open, we will be transparent, and we will get ahead of things, whether it looks good or bad on us,” Howell said. “The public is going to know what is going on. We work for them.”
Howell said a hallmark of his leadership style would be open-mindedness, which includes admitting when a course of action isn’t achieving the desired result. He would seek opinions and knowledge not only from his deputies but also from other law enforcement agencies in the region, including those HCSO may work with on various taskforces.