Capt. Russell Davenport officially announced his candidacy for Beaufort County Sheriff during a fundraising event at the Washington Civic Center Thursday night.

Davenport is the ninth candidate this year to enter the race that will be decided in next year’s election. May primaries will determine which of the four other Democrats and four Republicans will reach the November election.

A veteran with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Davenport currently serves as the captain of the agency’s narcotics unit, a position he’s held for three years. He started his career with the sheriff’s office 18 years ago, working his way up the ladder from a detention officer in the county jail to patrol, a patrol sergeant to lieutenant of the narcotics unit, then on to captain.

Davenport said his past experience is important as a framework for his qualifications for the office, but when it comes to why he believes he’s the best option for Beaufort County, his explanation is more personal.

“People have asked me ‘Why are you running?’ I was born and raised in Beaufort County and I’ve lived here my entire life. … I know the importance of raising children in Beaufort County and the important thing to me is keeping Beaufort County a safe place to live,” Davenport said. “I started my career here in the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office over 18 years ago — that’s pretty much my entire adult life. … I can give you pages and pages of training I’ve had, but you don’t go into law enforcement to make money. You need to be dedicated, committed and passionate to be successful at it. The main objective is to serve the people of Beaufort County, and you should know that before you get into law enforcement career.”

A graduate of Washington High School and Beaufort County Community College, Davenport now teaches BCCC cadets Basic Law Enforcement, as well as ethics and blocks of classes on controlled substances to veteran officers. Davenport said he chose his career path because most crimes in Beaufort County are drug-related and there’s no better way to suppress local crime than drug enforcement.

Training and manpower are two ways in which Davenport sees the sheriff’s office growing in the future.

“We only have five deputies on shift, and we’d like to expand that,” he said. “We want to be the most trained department there is. When I send a deputy to a call, I want them to have the best training, so they can always respond to any situation to the best of their abilities.”

But he also stressed the importance of continuing to hire people who are motivated and passionate about serving the public.

“I think you can have all the training in the world, but if you don’t show up to work and you don’t care about the work when you get there, then what good are you?” he asked. “You’re no good at all.”

Davenport grew up the eighth child of nine and said he and his siblings were taught to work for anything they wanted, a lesson that has extended to his law enforcement career.

“It didn’t take the sheriff retiring for me to want to serve the people of Beaufort County,” he said. “I’m going to continue to work and if I don’t get to be sheriff, I’m still going to continue to work.”

According to retiring Sheriff Alan Jordan, Davenport has his full backing in the campaign for Beaufort County’s next sheriff, because of the enthusiasm he has for the job and that he generates in his coworkers.

“I think he’s a great law enforcement officer and just a great man,” Jordan said. “As this campaign progresses and people learn about him more, I think he’s going to be very successful.”

Davenport lives in Washington with his wife Misty, 5-month-old son Parker and stepson Blake McRoy.