Bennie Cobb, candidate for Shelby County Sheriff, calls for a collaborative approach

Bennie Cobb coaches youth basketball and says he led two teams in the most recent season. "It absolutely wore me out!" 

The retired Sheriff's Office captain said if he's elected sheriff , he'll try to involve the department in youth mentoring on a large scale. "I know a lot of fine young men and women with the sheriff's office who want an incentive to go out and do some things with young people."

The youth program reflects the community outreach approach emphasized by Cobb, who is seeking the Democratic nomination versus Floyd Bonner, the current chief deputy with the SCSO. 

Cobb said if he's elected, he'd like to start his term with a listening tour in different neighborhoods. "The thing I want to emphasize is I am a collaborator," he said. "The table in the sheriff's office has been really, really small. . . I want to invite everybody to the big table."  

He said the department has emphasized the suburbs but that it should play a greater role in Memphis. "I want to have the ability to sit down and talk with the people from Frayser and North Memphis and Collierville, equally." 

Early voting has already started in the primary election and runs through Thursday.

The primary election day is Tuesday, May 1.

The winner of the primary will face Republican Dale Lane, director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, in the county general election on  August 2  – the same date as the federal and state primary elections.

Cobb points to his decades of experience with the sheriff's office in the jail and on patrol before retiring as a captain in 2011. He now runs a company called Eagle Eye Security and Training Services – it offers services such as security guard protection and handgun permit training courses.

Cobb, 58, is a current board member for The Arc Mid-South, an organization that advocates for people with Down syndrome, autism and a wide range of other conditions.

Cobb says he grew up in the tough environment of the old Hurt Village housing project and now lives in Lakeland, a well-to-do suburb, but can go into any neighborhood and interact with the people. 

"So I'm in the community. I have the pulse of the community. I know the people, they know me," he said.

One of Cobb's campaign sign says, "New Leadership: A visible face in the community." 

"Me, Bennie Cobb, will be everywhere," the candidate said. He also said he wants to control problems in the jail, where recent issues have included a computer glitch in late 2016 that delayed releases and led to legal action. 

Cobb says he's a member of the National African American Gun Association and the NRA.

He said he doesn't agree with all the NRA's positions, but said, "I agree with the statement, 'A good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun.'"  

Cobb has run for several public offices and lost, including in campaigns for sheriff in 2006, 2010 and 2014.

During that 2014 election, he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and challenged Bill Oldham, the Republican incumbent, in the general election. 

Cobb received about 57,000 votes, or 41 percent of the total, compared to Oldham's vote total of about 84,000 votes, or 59 percent.

Oldham faces term limits and the sheriff's seat is open this year.

If either Bonner or Cobb wins, they will become the first African-American elected as Shelby County Sheriff. (In 1990, the County Commission appointed W. Otis Higgs Jr. for a brief term as interim sheriff.) 

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.