PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King defeated Marc Titterness, an officer with the Port Townsend Police Department, in the race for Clallam County sheriff with 76.2 percent of the vote in the Clallam County Auditor’s most recent ballot county Wednesday night.

King received 19,815 votes to Titterness’s 6,106 votes.

“This really affirms my belief in what the citizens of this county really, really want, that they recognize that they have a truly a professional, responsive and community oriented law enforcement agency,” King said. “I just want to continue to maintain that.”

King, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office since 2001, was endorsed by current sheriff Bill Benedict, who announced in March that he would not run for reelection after four terms in office.

Titterness, who is a former deputy with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, said that he planned to continue working for the Port Townsend Police Department.

“This was this was about trying to make change in the community and regardless of the results of the election, it highlighted the issues with the staffing at the sheriff’s office to make those changes,” Titterness said.

“It’s not the result that we had hoped for, but, you know, I think the community is going to be better because of it.”

Titterness called running for public office for the first time, “an emotional rollercoaster, up and down,” adding, “I would recommend everybody do it once, and understand what it what it is,” he said.

King said that he planned to continue the Sheriff’s Office’s focus on investigative work while building on community oriented policing strategies.

“I believe that the success of our department comes from how successful we are conducting all of our investigations and the community is a force multiplier for being our eyes and ears,” King said. “By partnering with them, by creating those relationships we get so much more cooperation and being able to really keep our county safe.”

An immediate priority, King said, is the construction of a seismically tolerant Emergency Operations Center (EOC), a project he said he hopes to see start rolling soon.

“We’re going see that probably in the next couple of weeks, “King said. “But it’s really keeping the gas on the pedal to make that a reality. That’s just something that we really desperately need in this county right now.”

Like Titterness, King was running for public office for the first time.

“Everybody tries to give you advice, prepare you for what it’s going to look like, but until you actually do it, you don’t realize how big of a job and how big of a commitment it is,” he said. “It’s awesome to get back to work.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.