For as long as he can remember, Union County Sheriff Billy Breeding has wanted to go into law enforcement.

Perhaps that's because his father made a career in law enforcement. When Breeding was growing up in Maynardville's Green Acres subdivision and later on Hines Creek Road, his dad was a law enforcement officer of many stripes, including the first salaried police officer for the city of Maynardville, an arson investigator, work for the Tennessee fire marshal, and a criminal investigator for the Union County Sheriff's Office.

At age 14, Breeding took part in a law enforcement Explorer Scout program founded by his dad and Joe Ed Muncey, and the experience cemented what he'd known all along.

"It was my first taste of law enforcement. We trained in things a full-time officer would get trained in at the academy," he said. "Of course, I looked up to my father, and that was my first opportunity to feel like I was part of it. I felt like it was what I was meant to do."

He graduated from Horace Maynard High School in 1991 and in 1992 became a reserve officer for the Union County Sheriff's Office. He attended Walters State Community College and in 1994 enrolled in the police academy there. After graduation, he went to work as a full-time police officer for the city of Norris, where he stayed until 1999, when he got the opportunity to work in Union County again under former sheriff Earl Loy Jr. He worked as a road officer and taught DARE classes at the local schools with partner Wayne Cole. It was hard work, patrolling nights, getting one hour of sleep, then getting up and teaching, but Breeding was happy to be back home.

"That's where my heart's always been," he said. Being in law enforcement in the community where you grew up can make the job easier, but it can also make it harder.

"It's good that you know a lot of people," he said. "People know me and they trust me for the most part, but there's a flipside. Sometimes it can be people you grew up with involved in crimes, and at the end of the day I've got a job to do. I just try to be fair and honest."

In 2002, Breeding was promoted to chief deputy and jail administrator under former sheriff Willie Evans. It was a "drastic change" from being a patrol officer, he said. Instead of being in charge of his own beat, he was overseeing department operations, assigning cases, fielding complaints and more. Limited resources were an issue. When he first came on board with the Sheriff's Office, sometimes he was the only deputy on duty overnight for the whole county. When he was chief deputy, there were two on each shift, but if someone called in sick, he filled in.

When Loy was re-elected in 2006, a new chief deputy came on board, and Breeding sought work elsewhere, serving in security at K-25 in Oak Ridge. He ran for sheriff in 2010 and lost by a narrow margin. He ran again in 2014 and won.

"I felt I had a lot to offer the county," Breeding said. "I personally wanted to see a more proactive sheriff's department. I feel like I've done a lot of good for the county, made some good, positive changes. Law enforcement's changed a lot. It's more technical. Way back when, you could give someone a badge and a gun and tell them to go on. It's not like that anymore."

And Breeding has a lot to be proud of. One of the first issues he tackled was the Union County Jail, for a long time plagued by lawsuits and overcrowding. An official with the state of Tennessee sat him down during "new sheriff school" in Nashville "telling me how bad a shape the jail was in."

"When I got back, I sat down with the jail administrator, and I decided we would take care of all the deficiencies that we could," he said.

In 2015, the Union County Jail was finally certified by state regulators, an honor it had not received in more than 30 years. Breeding said at some point, as population grows and crime grows with it, the county will need to look at building a jail or justice center, "but of course, that's up to County Commission."

Other kudos include starting the Inmate Garden, a work program that gets jail inmates much-needed exercise while growing fresh produce to be consumed by jail inmates. The program has shaved $10,000 off the jail's food cost each year.

Neighborhood watch is another program Breeding points to as a success. Building on an existing neighborhood watch program in Big Ridge, Breeding has started neighborhood watches in all seven voting districts in Union County, with monthly meetings for each.

"I'm tickled," he said. "We've solved quite a bit of crime because of those meetings."

Getting involved in the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was also beneficial for the county, netting the Sheriff's Office $30,000 worth of equipment plus the training to use it. Breeding has also taken a hard stance on proactive drug investigations, placing one investigator solely on drug crime.

"I saw it as a need for this county," he said. "Since we've done that, we've had great success. There's a lot that goes into those investigations. They can take months or even years. Since I was elected, we've had probably 30 to 50 search warrants for drugs. In years past, they may have done two or three a year."

Of course, proactive drug investigations tie into Breeding's overall law enforcement philosophy.

"I believe in being proactive, No. 1," he said. "I believe that if you have a police presence, that's the first deterrent to any crime. When I came on as sheriff, I sat down with a map and divided the county into three zones, and I spread our patrolmen through the county. I've been very strict on that. I make sure they're in residential areas and back roads. And on the topic of drugs, if you get the people that are selling and using the drugs, you get most of the thefts and burglaries, domestics and DUIs, too."

He thanked Union County Commission for working with him to provide two more patrolmen, a new detective and a part-time animal control officer for the Sheriff's Office, and he praised his detectives for shouldering a large amount of work.

"Our detectives have 25 to 35 open cases each," he said. "I would put my detectives up against any in the state."

On those rare occasions when he's not working, Breeding likes to spend time with his family, including wife Tammy and grown daughters Nikki and Elizabeth. He also likes hunting, fishing and running.

"But it's hard sometimes to get away," he said. "I believe in being accessible, and it's a job where you're always on the clock."

Breeding plans to run for re-election in 2018.

"I'll be here for as long as they want me," he said. "This is where my heart is, and my desire is to do the best job possible. I'm here if they need me. We're not perfect, but we strive to be so, and my job is to provide the best service that I can.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve them in this capacity, and I hope to serve for many years in the future."