This is my final report on my research into the Knox County Sheriff's race. This started for me as activism around a false DUI charge I got back in November (fortunately, now dismissed). Along with this was a short but horrible jail experience, so who runs the Knox County jail is important to me. I decided to write all the candidates for Knox County Sheriff, tell them about my experience, and ask how they would make things better. Two of the 4 candidates got back to me. Brent Gibson and JJ Jones. JJ was pretty horrible. "We can't let one innocent person off, and have 10 guilty people go free." Brent Gibson was great. Had a long phone conversation with me. Explained to me why my arrest was against policy, and gave options for what the police could have done. Asked lots of questions. Knew his stuff and was empathetic without seeming like a politician kissing my *ss.

I had heard some folks in my circles saying they wanted info on candidates, so I did some research, and I liked Brent's webpage. JJ was the one who first made the tie with ice. Mike Davis actively said that having ICE here was a goal of his. So they were out. David Amburn seemed OK, actively supported MLK Day.

(Just to go back for a second, all the candidates are Republican; no Democrats are running for sheriff, so the winner of the Republican primary becomes sheriff. )

David Amburn never returned my messages. I tried to contact him twice. I got one message from his social media team, saying David would get back to me soon. It's been over 2 weeks.

There was a sheriff's candidates' debate. There was one question about immigration enforcement. Amburn was the most ambivalent about cooperation with ICE. Brent Gibson's answer talked about using the 287g program not for inviting ICE, but having our officers trained here. On the surface, this gave me pause, so I dug a little deeper. I checked Amburn's website (I tried to contact him, but there was no response), and his response on immigration. He talked about having a family member who could have been negatively affected by the encounter with an immigrant criminal. And how do we have to get rid of those folks? There was no caveat about the fact that many immigrants are law-abiding citizens. I thought it was damaging and fed right into Trump's picture of hordes of criminal aliens.

I contacted Gibson, and as before, he called me within 24 hours. He explained that he was for the enforcement (deportation) of immigrants who commit felonies. (Appreciated that he didn't try to hide his answer on that.) But he totally supported due process, and his strategy was to use 287g to train local officers that he would have control over, rather than ICE officers who behave badly. He said he did not want a Minneapolis or an LA here. He also said that while he will flag illegal immigrants who commit felonies, he will not do it for traffic stops. This was not a perfect answer for my values, but it seemed honest with some wisdom. And in my interactions, I have come to trust Brent.

There was also a question in the sheriff's debate, What is the most pressing challenge facing the Knox County Sheriff's Office? This was Brent Gibson's answer, which was very different from the rest. "One of the most pressing challenges obviously includes everything that they said, but the homeless situation in Knox County, which ties up in narcotics and the mental illness that we're trying to deal with as a population. And we've got to figure out as a society, as a community, how to help these people. We're currently housing most of those people in the Knox County Detention facility, and that's not the right place for them to be,"

Taking all this in, I am clearly voting for Brent Gibson, Amburn is a distant 2nd, and Mike Davis and JJ Jones would run about even with Kristi Noem if she were running. Other people might feel differently given all the information I have shared. My goal here was to educate.

To vote for Brent Gibson or one of the other sheriff candidates, you need to vote in the Republican primary. You can only choose one ballot for the primaries. This does not affect your vote in any way in the future; you can vote in the Republican primary and then vote for all Democrats in the general election. Normally, I would be drawn to vote in the Democratic primary, but there is only one office in all of Knox County (School Board), and only for District 1, that is contested on the Democratic side, and so our votes will have little or no effect. So I am going to vote in the Republican primary because I think the sheriff's office is so important.