{"id":249464,"date":"2026-07-22T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/249464\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:58:07","slug":"bethlehem-police-chief-announces-candidacy-for-albany-county-sheriff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/249464\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem police chief announces candidacy for Albany County sheriff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 Bethlehem Police Chief Gina Cocchiara wants to be the next Albany County sheriff.<\/p>\n<p>She announced her candidacy on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>As CBS6 previously reported, current Sheriff Craig Apple has decided not to seek a fifth term.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs6albany.com\/news\/local\/albany-county-sheriff-apple-to-not-seek-5th-term-wants-more-time-with-family\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PREVIOUS: Albany County Sheriff Apple to not seek 5th term, wants more time with family<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cocchiara began her law enforcement career in 1994 and joined the Bethlehem Police Department in 1998.<\/p>\n<p>She became the department&#8217;s first female police chief in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSheriff Apple has been a role model to me and so many others in local law enforcement for decades. His leadership, integrity, and dedication to Albany County have set the standard for what this office should be,\u201d Cocchiara said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s current term ends in December 2027.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs6albany.com\/news\/local\/community-leaders-reflect-on-sheriff-apples-contributions-to-the-community\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PREVIOUS: Community leaders reflect on Sheriff Apple&#8217;s contributions to the community<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 Bethlehem Police Chief Gina Cocchiara wants to be the next Albany County sheriff. She&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-249464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}