Newly appointed Sampson County Sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Perry has a career with the department that spans decades, one that has earned him multiple state and national accolades.
Even as a young student, Perry always had his heart set on a career in law enforcement. Though he had no history of family members in the field, Perry started out his career while still in high school, working at his local sheriff’s office in the search and rescue department. However, Perry would also enlist in the Marine Corps after high school, taking a slight detour from his law enforcement career. Though originally from the West Coast, Perry came to Sampson County after meeting his wife through the military. With his wife being from Sampson, Perry decided to move to North Carolina to be with her.
After leaving the Marines in 2004, Perry officially completed his Basic Law Enforcement training in Goldsboro. While he had his sights set on working at the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office, at that time, no positions were available.
“While doing my BLET in Goldsboro, I worked part-time in a jail,” said Perry during a recent interview. “When I graduated, there weren’t any positions available here, so Goldsboro hired me. I worked there just under a year as a police officer. After that, John Connelly, who was the chief (deputy) at the time, gave me a call and asked me if I was still interested in working at the Sampson office. So, I came here in June of 2005, and, really, I’ve been here ever since.”
Since moving to the area, Perry has become enamored with Sampson County, claiming it as his own home. As such, he describes feeling fortunate to be able to come to work each day.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to do what I do and work with the people I get to work with,” he attested. “Sampson County is my home, and my philosophy has always been that if I’m going to do this, then I want to do it for my people. I’ve had other agencies in Fayetteville and bigger cities try to recruit me, but this is my home. These are the people I want to serve.”
During his time at the Sheriff’s Office, Perry has worked in a variety of fields and held numerous ranks. Although he started out as a patrol deputy, Perry has expanded his work with other agencies, includingin Special Investigations as a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer and with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as a task force officer.
“Just to give you an idea, a task force officer is with the Sheriff’s Office, but is a sworn federal agent, so I have the full authority and jurisdiction of whatever agency I’m working for,” he explained. “When I was working with the DEA as a task force officer, I had the full authority and jurisdiction with them. The benefit of that is it allows us to utilize federal resources to conduct investigations in Sampson County.”
Perry has also served on the office’s Emergency Response Team. As a result of his many different positions, the captain stated that almost every day with the department is a new experience.
“It really just depends on what phone call happens to come in during the day,” said Perry. “The other day, I was at the federal court most of the day for a sentencing. I’m an expert witness in federal court for armed drug trafficking investigations. I’m brought in by the government to testify as an expert in federal trials. Really what I’m doing varies on a day-to-day basis.”
Working with the department, Perry has most recently secured the title of captain earlier this year. In addition, he has also received numerous awards and accolades. Most recently, Perry received the 2026 Investigator of the Year Award at the Federal Crimes Conference earlier this month. However, Perry has remained humble through his acceptance of these awards, citing his team and Sheriff Jimmy Thornton as a big help.
“Honestly, my take on it is that it’s more of a reflection of the people I’ve been able to work with,” he stressed. “I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to just work with some amazing people both within the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies. I’ve worked with a bunch of different agencies from here to California. Based on my experience with that, we are so incredibly fortunate here in Sampson County. The accolades are not a reflection of me but of the men and women that work for this department. If the sheriff hadn’t let me go to the DEA or another agency, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that I got to do.”
Now as a captain, Perry is able to give advice to young kids who stand in the same pair of shoes he once did, telling them the necessities of working in law enforcement.
“It’s more of a calling,” said Perry. “If you’re not getting into this line of work with a desire to serve other people, you’re going to be miserable. The majority of your time is dealing with the worst of humanity or people in the worst moments of their lives. If you’re not meaning to serve people, you will be absolutely miserable.”