Andrews – Not that long ago, public safety was in disarray in town.
In recent years, the Andrews Police Department has been a revolving door of chiefs and patrol officers. At one point, the entire department was vacant. More recently, a police chief died of cancer before facing felony charges of allegedly accepting payment for training that did not take place, and a patrol officer was let go after she allegedly stalked a teenage girl.
Things weren’t much better with Andrews’ fire and rescue departments. The century-old Andrews fire and rescue was disbanded following a pattern of allegedly not responding to dispatches.
But that was then.
The Andrews Police Department today is fully staffed and aggressively going after everything from speeders to drug dealers. Fire protection was taken over under contract with Valleytown Fire & Rescue, which had been responding to Andrews call-outs anyway.
Here are some of the numbers: Since January, the Andrews Police Department has received around 450 calls for service, conducted 168 traffic stops, and has completed nearly 350 security checks and extra patrol requests, according to Chief Caleb Stiles, who became the town’s top cop in 2023.
And since taking over fire and rescue protection inside town limits, Valleytown Fire & Rescue has a perfect response rate – 100 percent of dispatches have been answered.
“Since I began in October, we’ve made over a dozen drug-related arrests,” Stiles said. “The largest was a seizure of 103 grams of suspected crystal meth on Feb. 29 and over a pound of marijuana during another incident on March 15. We’ve also sent over 20 felony cases to the District Attorney’s Office for review.”
Downtown merchants and shoppers have complained about speeders on Main Street, so Andrews police have stepped up traffic enforcement for both motor vehicles and bicycles.
“We were lenient at first,” Stiles said.
His officers issued verbal warnings at first, then written warnings, before transitioning to traffic tickets. In some cases, the traffic stops led to other things. The increased patrols not only addressed the problem with speeders, it also resulted in much of the department’s drug arrest activity.
“We’re always looking for more,” Stiles added.
They found more
On Feb. 29, an Andrews patrol officer was looking for speeders near Main Street and Whisenhunt Hill in response to local complaints. The officer, using radar, pulled over a white Nissan Altima clocked at 42 mph in a 35 mph zone.
As the officer spoke to the vehicle’s occupants, Robbinsville residents Randy Dale Price Jr., the driver, and Tyler David Holland, a passenger, a second Andrews officer arrived and allegedly spotted a firearm on the floorboard near Holland’s feet.
Price and Holland were arrested – Price initially for driving on a suspended license, and Holland initially for possession of a firearm with altered serial numbers.
As they searched the two men, officers allegedly found about 103 grams of crystal methamphetamine on Holland, leading to drug trafficking charges for both men, among other offenses. Each were held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
The arrests led to a search warrant raid at a single-wide mobile home at 67 Watauga Lane in Andrews, where officers, assisted by Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents, arrested Markus Drew McClure, Jennifer Adrianne Greene, Travis Dewayne Orr and Stephanie Jackson Bridges on charges ranging from possession of methamphetamine to resisting a public officer.
Bonds set for those four ranged from $750 to $5,000 except for Bridges, who was held without bail.
Stiles said the 103 grams of meth was one of the biggest drug seizures in Andrews history. And it all started with an Andrews police officer with a radar, looking for speeders.
Stiles said his officers deal with everything from littering to homicides, which includes traffic enforcement. His officers have been making drug arrests almost every night. If you have an active warrant and you’re in Andrews, the clock is ticking.
“We watch the warrant list,” Stiles said. “If they have ’em, we get ’em.”
Word appears to be getting out among the law enforcement community. Stiles said he has enough job applications on file to fill another department.
He said response from the law-abiding community has been generally favorable. Stiles has heard some complaints about aggressive traffic enforcement, but he’s also heard calls for his officers to enforce traffic laws.
Fire protection
Valleytown Fire & Rescue Chief Justin Hyde was actively seeking elected office and not interviewed for this article.
In a report released in September 2019, Cherokee County Manager Randy Wiggins reported that between Sept. 1, 2018, and Sept. 6, 2019, the Andrews Fire Department was dispatched to 508 call-outs, of which 432 had no response – a dismal 15 percent response rate.
Andrews Rescue was even worse. It had 940 dispatches during that same time period, of which 843 had no response – a 10 percent response rate.
During that period, Valleytown Fire & Rescue, which provided primary coverage of the Valley River Valley with a mutual aid agreement inside Andrews, had 843 dispatches with 12 having no response – a 98 percent response rate.
After disbanding the Andrews fire and rescue departments in January 2022, the town’s board of aldermen contracted with Valleytown Fire & Rescue for services. Since that time, Valleytown has also identified dozens of defective fire hydrants throughout Andrews, which the town has been aggressively replacing.
Since taking over Andrews fire and rescue protection, documents show Valleytown Fire & Rescue has had a 100 percent response rate inside town limits.