Nine sheriff hopefuls and the current one have the chance to debate each other tonight on why voters should pick them for possibly the most embattled elected post in Fulton County.

The nine challengers against Sheriff Myron Freeman (D-Atlanta) include Ted Jackson (Alpharetta-D), a retired special agent in charge at the FBI's Atlanta office; Charles Rambo (D-College Park), a retired lieutenant sheriff and former president of an IBPO local; and Patrick Labat (D-Atlanta), a major at the Atlanta city jail.

Other candidates are: Ronald Brandy (D-Atlanta); Frank Brown (D-College Park); Curtis Farmer (D-East Point); Aubrey Osteen (D-Alpharetta); Michael Rary (R-Atlanta) and Charles Shelton (D-Atlanta).

The candidates will appear at the Auburn Avenue Research Library at 6 p.m. for a two-hour debate sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The two police unions say candidates will discuss such issues as security at the courthouse, management of the jail, ensuring that inmates are properly released and plans to improve conditions to comply with a federal court order.

The November election will come shortly after the start of the death-penalty trial of a man who put a spotlight on the sheriff's office. Brian Nichols is accused of escaping from a sheriff's deputy during his rape trial and killing a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy at the courthouse on March 11, 2005. Freeman had only been in office for about two months.

Nichols also is accused of killing a federal agent later that day while a manhunt for him made national news and stoked fear in metro Atlanta. Jury selection is scheduled to start July 10.

The courthouse shooting focused attention on the sheriff's security at the courthouse and jail.

The jail also has been under the scrutiny of a federal judge because of overcrowding, understaffing and the use of Tasers on inmates.