Retired Fayetteville Police Chief Kem Braden is considering whether to seek the appointment for Cumberland County Sheriff, which the county Board of Commissioners will decide on Aug. 11.
“I’m still weighing my options,” Braden told CityView on Friday shortly before he attended the swearing-in ceremony for new Fayetteville Police Chief Roberto E. Bryan Jr. Bryan. Bryan took over the police department this month after Braden retired in March.
“I’m looking at time and opportunity, what presents itself, and I’ll probably know for sure next week,” Braden said. He said he wants to consider how working again for a local government would affect the retirement system benefits he gained with the city.
If Braden applies for the sheriff position, he will be one of at least two applicants. The other is Sheriff’s Office Maj. Johnathan T. Morgan, who received the endorsement of former Sheriff Ennis Wright when Wright retired at the end of June.
People who want to seek the appointment have to turn in their application paperwork by 5 p.m. Aug. 4, the county has announced.
Braden retired after 29 years of working for the police department, the last two years as the chief.
So why would he want to jump back into the thick of things so soon?
“People have been asking: ‘I thought you were retired, so you spend more time with family,’” he said. “But you don’t realize: Just because you retired, your family didn’t retire. You know, your kids are at school, your wife’s at work. And I’m only 51 years old. … So I’ve got options.”
Braden said he misses doing the work. “Once a cop, always a cop.”
And he said he would prefer to pursue the opportunity here, where he grew up and spent his life, and where his friends and family are, he said, rather than someplace else out of town or for the federal government.
The Sheriff’s Office is attractive, Braden said, because it is an independent entity. The sheriff answers only to the voters, not a city or county government staff and board.
“There’s things that I was limited in doing as the chief of police,” Braden said. “My jurisdiction was within the city limits. I had a council and everything to report to. I had a city manager that was a direct report.”
A police chief “is not an elected position where you can do what you feel is needed,” Braden said. At the police department, “it has to run through the bureaucratic channels.”
The Sheriff’s Office “is a larger scale,” he said. “I think that I’ve always been someone who likes a challenge. There’s some problems over there with the jail, the staff and things like that. To me, the appeal would be just to go in there and continue to serve at a different level.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Maj. Johnathan Morgan’s first name.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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