Floyd County Sheriff Brian Craig used Facebook to announce his decision to not run for a fourth term. He will leave the office on Dec. 31, 2027, ending 12 years of positive growth.

On the Sheriff’s Department Facebook page, Craig wrote:

After much thought and consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking a fourth term as Sheriff of Floyd County. I plan to retire at the end of my current term on 12-31-27.

Serving as your Sheriff has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I am eternally grateful to the citizens of Floyd County for your trust and support. I am especially proud of the men and women of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office. Their dedication to our community is truly commendable. I am honored to work with them each and every day.

I remain fully committed to serving Floyd County and the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office through the end of my term. As always, I appreciated your love and support.

In my 60-plus years as a newspaperman covering police departments in multiple locations — including Washington, DC — I felt Brian was a strong, positive force in our county. He added many new, young deputies, training them to be a solid professional force, adding new programs like a Senior Watch program that adding help and protection for our older, retired citizens, upgraded and modernized the fleet of patrol cars and brought SUVs into the fleet after Ford retired their longtime car model, added new electronic tools for enforcement, added more school resource officers and was often praised by county citizens and elected leaders.

I first met Brian when he was a deputy. I covered several cases he worked and his campaign for the Floyd Press after previous Sheriff Shannon Zeman stepped down and reported on many of his positive changes to the department. When I was hospitalized late last year and was in an extended stay extending into this year in medical rehab, his deputies kept watch on my wife was home and unable to drive because of eye problems.

Brian put in long hours in the job, not just at his desk as an administrator but out in his patrol car, working events with his deputies. Some of us worried that his pace would burn him out. He was everywhere.

I wrote a story about his decision to retire for this week’s Floyd Press and I hope to sit down with him next year, in his last year as Sheriff, for an interview for a report for the paper on his tenure as Sheriff.

Floyd County was well served by him and his department and we will miss him.