Rick Singleton began his law enforcement career at the age of 21 as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Lauderdale County Alabama Sheriff’s Office in September 1972. He was later hired as a corrections deputy at the jail and promoted to Deputy Sheriff in February 1973. After working for the office approximately five years he ran for sheriff in 1978, coming in fourth in a twelve-man race.
After the election he continued his law enforcement career with the Florence Alabama Police Department where he rose through the ranks to become the city’s police chief in 1996, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. He ran for sheriff again in 2014 and was elected by an overwhelming margin, becoming the county’s first Republican sheriff. He was also the only sheriff in the county’s history to run unopposed when he ran for re-election in 2018. He retired in 2023 ending a law enforcement career that span fifty years.
