Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry announced Friday, Aug. 2, his plans to resign his office at the end of his third term saying, he will not be seeking reelection in 2026.

“At the end of this term I will have almost 28 years in law enforcement, 12 years as your sheriff … but I want to retire,” Gentry said during a press conference held at St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church Friday morning.

CCSO deputies and staff were the first to receive news of Gentry’s planned departure in a large-scale staff meeting immediately before the press conference. Gentry said his next priority was publicizing his decision in order to cut down on community speculation and allow for honest conversations with residents about the future of the department.

“I could not go the next year telling people that I don’t know what I want to do when I know in my heart what I want to do. I want to retire at the end of this term,” Gentry said. “That’s the choice I’ve made, but it’s important to me to tell the people.”

Gentry rose to the office of sheriff from his previous position as a drug enforcement deputy in a narrow runoff victory against former sheriff Mike Rainey in 2014. He has maintained the office, running unopposed in previous elections.

Gentry highlighted some of the accomplishments he was most proud of during his tenure, including the implementation of a new departmental pay-scale and increased community events.

“I think about the last 10 years and what we’ve accomplished in the office of sheriff. We took office in 2015 with the main priority of returning the office to the people, and that’s what we’ve done,” Gentry said. “We’re going everywhere and we’re speaking. That’s what you have to do in law enforcement to be successful.”

He said his decision to retire after a nearly 30-year career in law enforcement was made in effort to uphold his belief in self-enforced term limits.

“You always hear people in politics talk about term limits …but at the end of the day you see elected officials who say that they believe in term limits, but they’ve been in Washington D.C. for 30 years. The question becomes: Where is the accountability,” Gentry said. “I really believe it takes leaders to do more of self-accountability and self-term limits.”

Gentry said he was unsure of any plans after he leaves the CCSO, but said he would continue prioritizing Cullman County in whatever his future role may be.

“If something bad happens, I will always be there standing with you shoulder to shoulder, and what I can guarantee is this, I will never give those that would do harm to this community one inch,” he said.