COVINGTON, Ga. – Covington Police Department Capt. Ken Malcom has officially announced his run for sheriff in the 2020 election, with a video shared on his personal social media page Jan. 1. 

Malcom said it was important for him to get out early with his campaign in order to provide himself as much time as possible to meet the citizens of Newton County. 

“I think it is important for me to meet as many people as I can,” he said. “We’ve got over 100,000 citizens in this community. I want to meet as many of them as I can.

“I want face time with these people and hear what are their concerns and what they are looking for in a sheriff.”

Malcom said he had been approached by citizens asking if he was going to run and he wanted to put an end to the rumors and get the ball rolling on his campaign efforts. 

“This has been a dream of mine since I was a little boy," he said. "My dad a justice of the peace in the courthouse and I would see the sheriff walking in and I thought ‘Wow, that’s what I want to be one day.’

“I’ve always wanted to go into law enforcement; I never wavered. I’ve always had a passion for serving people in this capacity. I’ve always looked at people who do this line of work as heroes and I have so much respect for those that have done this job for the number of years that they have.” 

Malcom said he has been humbled by the response he has received since announcing his campaign. 

“It’s definitely more than I hoped for in an initial statement,” he said. “It’s a good start. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.”

Since his announcement, Malcom said he has received a lot of support from law enforcement officers in the area and he is looking forward to continuing to learn more about the needs in Newton County. 

"I've been very honored and impressed by the number of people that are in the criminal justice system that have given me words of encouragement and indicated they will support me to the limits of what they can do," he said. 

When Election Day rolls around 23 months from now, Malcom will have 35 years of law enforcement experience under his belt. In that time, he has worked as a dispatcher with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, DARE instructor and outreach coordinator for CPD, and a Captain in various departments of the department. 

“I’ve been a captain for more than a decade,” he said. “I’ve had an opportunity to work in every division in the department, including patrol and investigations and one area that I think has prepared me the most for this next venture is the operations and support services department. 

“I have helped prepare and manage a multi-million-dollar budget, which I think is something very important for anyone seeking the office of sheriff to have. It is something that can be extremely challenging and it has been.”

Outside of being a law enforcement officer, Malcom has his undergraduate and master’s degree in criminal justice, with a psychology minor from Troy University. He has used that education to serve as an adjunct professor at Georgia Perimeter College and Georgia State University for about 10 years. 

Malcom said he has given up teaching in an effort to focus all of his personal time on the campaign. 

“I’m going to miss it, but I need this time to go out and meet the 100,000-plus people in this community,” he said. 

As he is still employed full-time with CPD, Malcom guarantees to spend every minute he can reaching out to Newton County's citizens. 

"The work that I will do on this campaign will be after hours," he said. "This is why I cleared my personal calendar as best I can so I am no longer doing things like teaching college. My focus is getting out and getting to meet the people that don't know me or have concerns about me."

If elected, Malcom said he plans to get to know the good people of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office and work to find out the needs within the department from its employees. 

“I want to find out again what are their needs, what do they feel like they are lacking and how I can support them more,” he said. “What I certainly don’t want to have happen is good people leaving that organization.

“The bleeding has got to stop.”

Malcom said he ready to "enjoy the journey" and encourages citizens interested in reaching out to him to learn more about his campaign can do so by email to kenmalcom235@att.net or by phone to 770-771-3398.