Retired Navy Capt. Baron Reinhold acknowledged this week that, with no previous law enforcement experience, he would have to prove himself to Gwinnett deputies if he is elected as sheriff next year.
Reinhold announced his plans to run for the Republican nomination for Gwinnett County Sheriff during a meeting of the Gwinnett County Republican Assembly on Tuesday night. The Sheriff’s Office, which is currently held by Sheriff Keybo Taylor, a Democrat, is one of several local offices that will be up for election in 2024.
“In any organization that you go into, I think you have to go in there and people are going to size you up,” Reinhold said. “I mean people are going to look at me like, ‘Who’s this clown? He doesn’t have any law enforcement background, this, that or the other.’
“Everybody’s got their preconceived notions so what you have to do is you go in there and prove to them who you are everyday.”
Reinhold, who lives in Suwanee, spent nearly 35 years in the Navy and retired on Jan. 1, 2020, spending his last five years as the commanding officer and instructor for ROTC units at Georgia Tech and Morehouse College.
Although he has not served in law enforcement, he is counting on the skills he learned in the military to prepare him to lead the sheriff’s office and work with the community. He said there are some similarities between serving in the military and serving in law enforcement.
“There are obviously aspects of the job that cross over,” Reinhold said. “I mean almost my entire career in (Navy) aviation was in reconnaissance. You can call that, ‘I have a lot of time doing stake outs.’ Thousands of hours, but a different format though.”
Reinhold said he was the director of the Navy’s community management system at one time, and one of the responsibilities he had in that role was making sure the…
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