Long-term chief of Chocowinity Police Todd Alligood will run for sheriff of Beaufort County in the 2014 election.
Alligood is no stranger to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. He began his career in law enforcement there in 1991 under then-Sheriff Nelson Sheppard, serving as a detention officer, then as bailiff, patrol deputy and criminal investigator. In 1995, he left the sheriff’s office to become an intensive probation surveillance officer, then went on to serve as chief of the Chocowinity Police Department, a position he’s held for the past 17 years.
“It’s something that I fell into, but I found that I love it,” Alligood said of his 22-year career in law enforcement. “I saw how many lives you could touch in the community — friends, neighbors, family.”
That’s one of the reasons he’s running for sheriff, he said: to expand that assistance to a larger community and facilitate greater partnerships with other agencies within the county.
“I think public safety and service is the same — we’re just talking on a larger scale,” Alligood explained, adding that the main issues affecting the county are the same in the county’s towns. “It goes back to the basics: it’s drugs; it’s property crime. It goes back to the basics of what law enforcement is all about.”
Alligood hopes to bring new ideas to the sheriff’s office, as well as give the community the opportunity to see what they want from the agency realized.
“I believe the sheriff’s office should reflect the community it serves,” he said.
To that effect, Alligood said the new ideas he’d bring with him if elected would include a community advisory board, close meetings with other agencies and forming partnerships: “partnerships in whatever task there is to do, from Animal Control to other police forces to state agencies,” he said.
Alligood said he’s proud of the work he’s done for Chocowinity — building the department from one officer and no computers in a limited facility, to a technologically savvy force of four paid officers and seven auxiliary officers, in a new facility, the construction of which he oversaw himself.
“Luckily, I work for a really good group of people (in Chocowinity) and they’re supportive of my decision (to run for sheriff),” he said.
Alligood will run on a Democratic ticket and said he doesn’t believe that will affect his chances with a Republican majority.
“Justice is justice whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican,” Alligood said. “Voters will look at qualifications and vote on that, for the best interests of Beaufort County.”
A native of Beaufort County, Alligood is a graduate of Washington High School and attended Beaufort County Community College. He and his wife, Annette, have been married for 20 years and have one son, Jacob.