At the Opening Awards Ceremony of the 2025 N.C. Public Safety Communications Conference on May 5, the NC Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) honored Dare County’s Jack Scarborough with the award for Communications Director of the Year.
The North Carolina APCO is a leading advocate for public safety communications professionals across the state, and is dedicated to fostering excellence, innovation, and collaboration in emergency communications.
Captain Scarborough serves as the communications director for the Dare County Sheriff’s Office 911 Communications Center in Manteo. Born and raised on Hatteras Island, Scarborough began his career with Dare County in 1998, when he was hired as a deputy sheriff for the Dare County Sheriff’s Office.
In January 2004, he was promoted from his starting position as deputy sheriff to the position of master deputy sheriff before being promoted once again in September 2006 to deputy sheriff sergeant. In March 2015, he was further promoted to the position of deputy sheriff lieutenant, which was followed by a fourth promotion to the position of deputy sheriff captain in September 2021, before most recently being promoted to his current position as director of the 911 Communications Center in September 2021.
In his role as director of the 911 Communications Center, Scarborough is tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the 911 Communications Center in Manteo and managing its staff of telecommunicators who are responsible for receiving and responding to both emergency and non-emergency calls, as well as dispatching the appropriate police, fire and emergency medical services personnel throughout Dare, Hyde, and Tyrrell counties.
Captain Scarborough was selected as 2025’s Communications Director of the Year out of roughly 125 directors across the state of North Carolina.
The awards were announced on Monday, May 5, at the annual North Carolina APCO and National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Conference at the Wilmington Convention Center.
