With term-limited Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler coming to the end of his eight-year tenure, four law-enforcement veterans are in the mix to replace him.

The sheriff oversees approximately 1,000 employees and controls the bulk of the county’s $212.8 million public safety budget.

The contenders are David Amburn, Knox County Sheriff’s Office chief of detectives; Mike Davis, a former federal agent who previously worked for the KCSO; Brent Gibson, former assistant chief deputy at KCSO; and former Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones. 

All are Republicans. Since no Democrat is in the running, the winner of the GOP primary on May 5 will assume command when Spangler’s term ends  in September.

KCSO has two primary functions: providing law enforcement countywide, but particularly in areas outside the Knoxville city limits (the Knoxville Police Department takes the lead inside); and operating the county jail system, which holds inmates awaiting trial and serving short criminal sentences. 

The sheriff oversees approximately 1,000 employees and controls the bulk of the county’s $212.8 million public safety budget. The sheriff has more autonomy than the Knoxville police chief, who reports to the city mayor; as an independent office-holder, the sheriff is accountable only to the voters of Knox County.

The next sheriff will face challenges common to law-enforcement agencies across the country, with staffing and cooperation with federal authorities on immigration enforcement at the top of the list.

Spangler made maintaining staffing levels easier in 2023 when he negotiated historic pay raises — 12 percent raises for patrol officers up to the rank of captain and 27 percent for corrections officers in the jails — with Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. The salary increases made KCSO competitive with the KPD and other agencies.

Since 2017, KCSO has had a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify jail inmates who are undocumented immigrants for possible deportation. With President Donald Trump’s unprecedented nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants, there have been calls in some quarters to expand the agreement to allow KCSO officers to enforce immigration laws on the streets as well.

If financial disclosure forms submitted to the Knox County Election Commission are any indication, the contest could go in a number of directions.

Davis raised $91,592 during the first quarter of 2026, with $75,000 of that amount coming in the form of a personal loan. He had $55,008 remaining on March 31.

Amburn raised $87,412, all of it from donors. He has outspent the field by far, shelling out $103,560 through March 31, leaving his account with $7,696.

Gibson raised $56,238 and spent $33,299 during the quarter. He had $43,468 on hand at the end of the reporting period.

Jones took in $73,850, spent $43,460 and had $2,795 left for the final five weeks of the campaign.

David Amburn  

Amburn has worked in law enforcement for 34 years. He started as a corrections officer, worked in patrol in various areas and has most recently led the detective division and fleet program at the Sheriff’s Office. 

On working with ICE, Amburn says there are a couple of pathways that the Sheriff’s Office can use. The current one employs two deputies who can access a federal database to see who is here illegally. Those arrested and flagged are at the detention facility and then sent along to federal facilities. Another model would allow more officers to be deputized to do immigration checks in the field. But he’s wary of taking on too much federal work when ICE already has the responsibility of finding and removing undocumented immigrants.

Amburn said he would have to take a closer look at that second option before making any changes to how KCSO interacts with ICE. He said that jail crowding could be an issue if they become more active in picking up illegal immigrants.

Amburn sees the sheriff’s role as balancing demands within the political system and among officers.

“My main responsibility … is to keep the community safe and make sure we have the people in place to cover the calls for service,” Amburn said.

To that end, he said that recruiting efforts can be made to get the staff up to 1,200 officers. One change to employment practices, he said, would be to establish a defined career path for officers so that they can get regular wage increases and promotions. A defined career path would help with recruiting by guaranteeing raises for people who may want to be in their position without having to go into management, he said. 

A five-year cycle for employees would allow officers to plan for a path ahead while helping with the county’s budget planning, he said. Regular wage increases would be more predictable than an annual Sheriff’s Office request to get more money for officers.

“Going back every year, asking the mayor and Commission, ‘I need an 8 percent, I need a 9 percent (budget increase)’ … that’s just not a reasonable expectation,” Amburn said.

“None of us are going to win 100 percent of the time as leaders. We all have our own specific set of complications and issues and trying to support the men and women that work for us, and we’re much stronger if we’re all working on the same team.” 

Employment and recruiting are in good shape, he said, which he hopes to continue. Amburn said that competitors’ comments claiming that KCSO  is understaffed show that they may not be as well connected to the Sheriff’s Office as they claim.

It’s important to understand a new generation of employees, he said, which would include flexibility in scheduling. Allowing officers to grow beards and sport tattoos — recent policy changes — also reflects flexibility. 

The 59-year-old Amburn is single with two adult children and five grandchildren. He said he hopes that his parents, both in their 90s, will be able to attend the swearing-in ceremony, should he be elected. He is a graduate of Farragut High School.

Mike Davis

Davis worked for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office back when it was referred to as the Sheriff’s Department and then went to work for the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. He’s prioritizing moving unhoused people into permanent housing and working with ICE to get rid of undocumented immigrants, among other issues. 

“I have worked with multiple task forces and have worked with Homeland Security,” he said of having KCSO work more closely with ICE. “So I’m in favor of that.” 

That would involve creating a task force that could work independently of the rest of the Sheriff’s Office to round up immigrants. “I think we can enhance our efforts with the task-force model,” he said, “but that takes additional funding.” 

He describes law enforcement as a “calling.” Recruiting can be done on college campuses, he said, and by reaching out to military veterans. He wants employees to have a sense that they’re a part of something that’s bigger than themselves. A career-path model for raises and promotions is a system he wants to implement instead of “arbitrary raises by the grace of … the County Commission and the mayor working together with the Sheriff’s Office.”

He called homelessness an issue that needs to be attacked but offered few details on how best to approach the matter. He said he considers himself to be an outsider type of candidate, someone who has not recently been employed by the Sheriff’s Office. Over the years, he said, the sheriff has been elected by voting blocs within the county.

“I’m not part of any faction,” Davis said. “Also, since I’m outside the bubble, I feel like I’m going to bring more objectivity and discernment into the office as sheriff … you know, having a fresh light.”

Davis, 61, is married to Republican state Rep. Elaine Davis and has three children and two grandchildren. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1989.

“I view this race … (as) the most consequential race, from the research that I’ve done, in the history of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office,” he said. As pressing crime matters, Davis pointed to “the explosive growth that we’re having, the homeless situation, the immigrant issue, as well as the narcotics in our community, the violence and the secondary crime associated with narcotics … and the gang activity.”

He emphasized that law enforcement is a calling, and then pivoted to protecting women.

“I see where there’s women that walk on some trails or in parks, and they’re afraid to go to walk on these trails or parks in the early-morning or late-night hours,” he said, “and, you know, we’re gonna make the women in this county feel safe.”

Brent Gibson

Gibson, a former KCSO SWAT team commander, retired from the Sheriff’s Office in 2024.

“The people of Knox County — the citizens and the people at the department — deserve strong leadership,” Gibson said. He’s worked at plenty of levels in the Sheriff’s Office and sees the county’s growth as an issue to tackle with recruiting.

“The problem is we just don’t have enough people,” Gibson said. “We’re going from call to call every minute of every day.”

He said a better benefits package, including affordable insurance, can help attract people to Sheriff’s Office jobs. Other law-enforcement agencies, he said, can recruit officers away from Knox County with better benefits. A nearby law-enforcement agency offered insurance for his family for $40 a month when his wife switched jobs, he said. He also wants to tap military veterans for positions on the force. “Get those people in here; they’re not looking for a job, they’re looking for a career and a livelihood,” he said.

Gibson supports immigration enforcement efforts, but, “the problem is, I don’t want ICE agents doing it.” The county’s jail model, which he called inefficient, could be replaced with a task-force model that would allow the county’s deputies to be on a team that would police undocumented immigrants. 

“That way, it’s keeping some of that work down so (ICE agents) don’t have to come in here and do raids on small businesses,” he said, “or storm up into Home Depot and get all the people waiting for … their work.”

On homelessness, he said, “it’s not illegal to be homeless … but it is illegal to trespass on people’s property and then to make a mess in public places.”

Drug use and mental illness are major issues, he said. “We don’t need to take those people to jail, but unfortunately, right now, there’s nowhere else to put them,” Gibson said. He added that state officials should step in to provide funding for shelters that can provide treatment for those who need it.

Gibson, 52, is married and has two daughters. He retired as assistant chief deputy at KCSO and is a former football player at the University of Tennessee.

Jimmy “J.J.” Jones

In a field with familiar faces to those in law enforcement, Jones is perhaps the most well known countywide. He served two terms as sheriff, leaving in 2018 because of term limits. He mounted an unsuccessful effort to wrest the job back from Spangler in 2022 and now wants another crack at the post.

“Our population has exploded in Knox County and continues to explode, so we’re having to keep up with that,” he said. “Right now we have fewer police officers than we did back in the early to mid-’90s. You know, we’ve got to get our numbers up. We’re doing more with less, and as Knox County continues to grow … police agencies have to grow with it.”

He sees the overall department as down about 50 officers. As the ranks fill, he wants to send more officers to Knox County schools, as a protective move.

“Right now we have some schools (where) one officer covers three schools, and that’s just unacceptable,” he said. “I want two officers in every school.” Should an active-shooter situation happen in a school, he said that two officers can handle that better than a single one.

Staffing those schools means understanding the kinds of recruits they’re attracting and what they want. Good pay generally matters to anyone, but younger recruits tend to also want benefits and flexibility. He said that military recruits should also be sought.

“We’re all competing for the best people in recruitment,” Jones said. “I think we’re going to have to really start looking at the military. We’re going to have to start looking at these guys that are, you know, early 40s, mid 40s, who served 15 or 20 years in the military and are out now.”

Jones was an adopter of the 287(g) program that allows state and local law-enforcement agencies to perform immigration-officer functions under ICE direction and oversight. He looks at that and homelessness as issues that are ongoing and require constant attention.

“The homeless … we’re going to have to look at that, and that’s going to be a problem we’re going to have to tackle,” Jones said. “I think immigration is a problem that we’re going to have to look at, and another problem we’re going to have to tackle.”

Jones, 67, holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Tennessee. He has four grandchildren.