Several months ago, the N.C. State Auditor’s Office began an investigation into the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office over allegations of financial impropriety and fraud. Last week, that report was completed, with the state auditor finding no instances of wrongdoing.
The allegations leveled against the sheriff’s office included:
- Sheriff Travis Allen used his patrol vehicle for personal purposes
- Allen uses his office’s purchasing card (P-card) for personal vacation expenses, vehicle parts and maintenance and fishing equipment
- The sheriff’s office has made “excessive expenditures on unnecessary purchases,” with the complaint specifically referring to the purchase of “20 to 30 new patrol cars,” multiple other cars, six motorcycles, horses and a new patrol boat.
- The sheriff’s office purchased a new Dodge Ram to tow a new patrol boat.
- The sheriff’s office purchased $1.3 million worth of new uniforms that came in the wrong color and were subsequently stored in the justice center basement.
- Funds from the 911 center were misused.
- The sheriff’s office denied legitimate public records requests for the department’s fuel P-card records.
The report from the state auditor’s office stated that several of the complaints were not accompanied by enough information for an investigation, specifically stating that it could not investigate allegations of fraud in the 911 center or the public records request.
The state auditor’s office ruled that the remaining allegations were unsubstantiated.
Sheriff Travis Allen used his patrol vehicle for personal purposes
The auditor’s office investigated the complaint that the sheriff owned a black Chevrolet Tahoe that mirrors his patrol vehicle and found no evidence that Allen owned a Tahoe. According to the report, auditors were unable to investigate the allegation of personal use because “the complainant did not sufficiently describe when the sheriff allegedly used his patrol vehicle for personal purposes.”
Allen uses his office’s P-card for personal vacation expenses, vehicle parts and maintenance and fishing equipment
The office found no evidence that the sheriff misused his P-card. The auditor’s office reviewed the transactions the card had been used in and found no “purchases related to personal vacation expenses, vehicle parts and maintenance services or fishing equipment.”
According to the report, from 2020-2021 the sheriff office’s P-card went completely unused while it stayed under the budgeted limit of $25,000 in 2022-2023. A review of the detention center’s P-card found that it also went unused in 2020 and 2021 before exceeding its budgeted amount in both 2022 and 2023.
The sheriff’s office has made “excessive expenditures on unnecessary purchases,” with the complaint specifically referring to the purchase of “20 to 30 new patrol cars,” multiple other cars, six motorcycles, horses and a new patrol boat
The auditor’s office found no evidence that the purchase of the department’s Fluid Watercraft patrol boat or the four new BMW motorcycles and one used motorcycle, which were all done through a $720,000 state grant, were inappropriate.
Allegations that the sheriff’s office improperly purchased a Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Tahoe were also investigated. Auditors reviewed fiscal years 2022-2024 and found that all of the vehicles were either already in the fleet or were approved in the office’s publicly-proposed budgets.
“Annually, a portion of the sheriff’s office’s fleet is assessed to determine whether replacement is necessary. Extremely high mileage and mechanical failure are two factors that warrant vehicle replacement. These facts also suggest that the allegation regarding the sheriff’s office making excessive and unnecessary vehicle purchases is unsubstantiated,” wrote the auditors in the report.
Later in the report, the auditors also write that they found no evidence that the sheriff’s office purchased any horses during the periods they reviewed.
The sheriff’s office purchased a new Dodge Ram to tow a new patrol boat
According to the report, the department was approved to purchase a 2005 and a 2007 Dodge Ram truck in fiscal year 2022 as replacement vehicles.
“However, OSA spoke with the sheriff’s office and confirmed that it purchased a 2024 Dodge Ram 2500 in September 2024 using remaining surplus funds and general budget allocations for the fleet approved by the board (of commissioners). Based on our review, OSA determined the allegation that the sheriff’s office purchased a new Dodge Ram to tow the office’s new patrol boat is unsubstantiated,” wrote the auditors in the report.
The sheriff’s office purchased $1.3 million worth of new uniforms that came in the wrong color and were subsequently stored in the justice center basement
Auditors found that the sheriff’s office spent between $60,000 and $70,000 annually on new uniforms from 2020 through 2023. That number grew to a budgeted $131,000 in fiscal year 2024 and the sheriff’s office spent approximately $100,000, far short of $1.3 million.
The report also found no evidence that uniforms were delivered in the wrong color and hidden in the basement.
Following the reports on every finding, the auditors wrote that they found each of the allegations to be unsubstantiated and closed the case.
In an interview on Thursday, Jan. 14, Allen gave much of the credit for the sheriff’s office’s clean books to policies and procedures put in place by County Manager Aaron Church, Auditor Andy Downs and Finance Director Anna Bumgarner. He specifically pointed to policies that require departments to keep organized receipts for purchases along with memos explaining and justifying purchases.
“I think we should get credit for running a tight ship and doing things correctly, but I also think that county management, the county commissioners and county finance should get credit because they hold their directors to very high standards. It would almost be impossible to waste money or embellish money here, as tightly as they control our purchases. I think (this report) is a win, not only for the sheriff’s office, I think it’s a win for Rowan County as well,” said Allen.
Allen said he received a call on Monday, Jan. 5from an official from the auditor’s office called them and asked county leadership to speak with them in an online meeting on Friday, Jan. 9. That was the first time he learned that his office had been investigated. He said he was originally confused, wondering how an investigation could have been performed without questioning him.
“They basically came out and said it was one of the best reports they’ve ever done and the reason they didn’t ask me any questions is because they didn’t find anything they needed to ask my questions about,” he said.
He said that he understood that the sheriff’s office receives one of the largest budgets in the county and that he took that responsibility seriously.
“For the last year, individuals have been providing the community with false information about the spending practices of myself and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. When I was elected three years ago, I promised to spend your tax dollars wisely and appropriately. This unbiased state audit proves, without a doubt, that we hold ourselves accountable and to the highest standard when it comes to your tax dollars. In this political season, some individuals have shared false information. This excellent report proves all of them wrong. The NC Auditor reviewed three years’ worth of spending at the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and found no evidence of wrongdoing or improper spending,” Allen is quoted as saying in a release.
However, Allen also said that he took the allegations as offensive because of “how personally” he took his job as sheriff.
“It is refreshing to be able to have a report like this that goes down into a lot of things that people have been critical about us as inappropriate: vehicle purchases, P-card purchases, uniforms. Everything in this report it says is appropriate and no wrongdoing. It’s refreshing to see that because I can say that all day long. I can say that we’re doing right and our critics can say that we’re doing wrong and there’s no validity there (for either),” he said. “But for an outside source, for four months to pour over our records and can’t find anything, that’s good.”
The audit can be found on the state auditor’s website at auditor.nc.gov/documents/reports/investigative/inv-2026-rcso.
