Cobb assistant sheriff, ex-public safety head to lead GBI

Michael Register, a former Cobb public safety director and police chief who is currently a Cobb assistant sheriff, has been named director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.Mike Register, GBI Director

Register’s appointment was announced Monday by Gov. Brian Kemp. Register succeeds Vic Reynolds, a former Cobb District Attorney whom Kemp recently named as a judge to the Cobb Superior Court.

Until Register’s hiring is approved by the Georgia Board of Public Safety, assistant GBI director John Melvin will head the department in an interim role.

“Mike has a strong track record of strengthening public safety and protecting Georgia’s communities,” Kemp said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to his impact on this important agency that makes our entire state a safer and better place to live, work, and raise our families.”

Register has been with the sheriff’s department since current Sheriff Craig Owens took office in 2021. Register’s duties included community engagement, uniform field operations and internal affairs.

Reynolds, who was named GBI director by Kemp in late 2019, resigned that post in June and was sworn in Monday to succeed former Judge Tain Kell.

Sgt. Jeremy Blake, a public information officer for the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, issued the following statement:

“Assistant Chief Michael Register is a dynamic leader and law enforcement professional. He has been instrumental in helping Sheriff Owens transform the culture at the sheriff’s office.
“Sheriff Owens and the men and women of the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office express our appreciation for his service to the people of Cobb County and we wish him all the best in his new role serving our great state.”

Register, a former Clayton police chief, served as Cobb Police Chief from 2017 to 2019, when he was promoted to public safety director. But he announced his retirement a few months later, citing “urgent family issues.”

Register is a retired U.S. Army veteran who is a graduate of the FBI Executive Institute and is working on a doctorate in strategic leadership from Liberty University.

He is a past member of the Georgia Peace Officers Standard Training Council and the state Judicial Qualification Commission and served on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces’ Executive Board.

The GBI employs nearly 1,000 people and conducts a variety of criminal investigations and forensic science and supports the state’s criminal justice system.

Among those roles includes investigating officer-involved shootings by local law enforcement.

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6 thoughts on “Cobb assistant sheriff, ex-public safety head to lead GBI”

  1. I couldn’t help but notice that the comments were closed for the Staley/Kell retirement-Reynolds replacement, stories. Why is that ? Is Mike Register more popular?
    After watching Children of the Underground, the docu-series on the corrupt Family Court system, child molestation, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and how Cobb County went after Evangelist, and modern Harriet Tubman, Mrs. Faye Yager, I couldn’t help but get the feeling had Mrs. Yager been prosecuted under the Reynolds/Boring/Evans/Staley/Kell, version of the Cobb Justice Machine, she would still be in jail. God save us.
    Let’s not even talk about Judge Staley’s kangaroo court-travesty, Ross Harris trial.
    Congrats again, Mike Register. I can still remember them pulling you out as a distraction from the CCPD’s dismal IACP report/scam back in June, 2017.
    God bless all

      • Thank you.
        I guess that makes sense? Could you not just remove the spam? Comments are rare, unfortunately.
        Myself being Jewish, from a Zionist family, I’ve closely followed the anti-semitism events in Cobb County over the years. Is it not sad that in the very spot that resurrected the Ku Klux Klan in 1915, the Anti Defamation has to manufacture anti-semitism where none exists?
        I enjoyed your “Nazi School Symbol story”. Scary stuff for a Jew!
        God bless all

      • Is it not a little strange that after 40 years in the notorious, Cobb Justice Machine, Judge Mary Staley- Clark(who I’ve researched a bit) only received one comment? And a generalization.
        That seems very suspicious? And even sad.
        As a former Cobb Countian, and a huge fan of Judge Staley-Clark, I’d like to display the ultimate gesture of goodwill, love, and respect in the comedy world… a scathing roast.
        So sit back, imagine yourself at a banquet hall surrounded by family, close friends and associates. Everyone is sad, and many are inebriated.. I humbly present to you my brief roast of the Honorable Judge Mary Staley- Clark.

        There’s Something About Mary?

        As I humbly stand here tonight at this lectern, on such a grand and solemn occasion, and I look out over the faces, and into the eyes of this distinguished crowd, I can’t help but think to myself,.. “I had better watch my back, and my wallet!”(laughter)

        It’s safe to say that there are a few up here tonight onstage with me, who should be under the Cobb jail, not practicing law inside its courthouses . Am I right, Am I right?(laughter) But seriously, Judge Staley-Clark is one very special breed. A trailblazer. Some would even say, a maverick. The very first female prosecutor hired by the infamous Cobb DA’s office. You might say Judge Staley is the Rosa Parks,or Susan B Anthony of Georgia mass incarceration(laughter). There have been many since, but Mary Staley did it first. And we never forget our first…
        Well folks… Mary has done it all… (laughter).Wow! 40 years of corruption…(laughter) What an incredible woman!… Stop laughing, Judge Schuster! …Really?… You can talk?(laughter)… Judge Stephen Schuster has broken up more Cobb families than the combination of internet porn, and meth(laughter). What a crowd… what a crowd… a great crowd! A good looking crowd…except for you, Judge Schuster! ( laughter)
        There’s something about Mary,… something besides chronic halitosis?(laughter)… Am I right?(laughter) But seriously, it’s her great hair. Yes, that great mane of thick, dyed hair.(laughter). Or is that a wig? (laughter) You’re probably as bald as Vic Reynolds under there?(laughter) I’m an ex- hair stylist, I notice these things. Either way, wig or natural? Truly, I’ve never seen a judge so obsessed with her hair. (laughter) It’s true. What’s up with that? (laughter). You should have been a hair model instead of a judge. (laughter). We’d all have been better off. (laughter) Am I right? Certainly Ross Harris would agree? (laughter) You out there, Ross? (laughter) C’mon, If Judge Staley would have put as much energy into presiding over fair trials as she does with her hair. The citizens of Cobb would have been much better off. Am I right? (laughter and cheers)

        Before joining the Cobb Superior Court, Mitzi Staley was elected to Cobb Magistrate Court in 1982 and then fast tracked to Division One of State Court two years later(laughter). And the rest, as they say, is history. So what, if Judge Staley- Clark was elected, without opposition, to every position she has ever held(laughter)? That’s ok, Mary. We still love you. At least you went through the motions of running for office. Not like our friend over there, Vic Reynolds(laughter).

        There’s just something about Mary?…

        Former Cobb DA Tom Charron once said of Judge Staley, “She has expertly tried some of the most difficult cases over the years. I cannot think of a better trial judge.” Earth to Tom Charron, I guess you missed the Ross Harris trial (more laughter)?
        There really is something about Mary… From 2014 to 2015, Mary Staley was busy. She served as president of both the Kiwanis Club of Marietta, and the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia. This is the group which sets the rules for the hundreds of judges in the state’s 50 judicial circuits. Rules? That’s funny, I didn’t realize Georgia courtrooms had rules(more laughter)…. this explains everthing.(laughter) Hey!…Would somebody please inform Chuck Boring about this whole, “rules” thing? Hey Mr. Chuck, there’s rules! Who knew? …(laughter and whistles)… Thank you very much.

        Anyway, thanks to Judge Staley-Clark for her service to our community and the prison industrial complex. For her grace, dignity, and sense of humor, we thank her. To you, Mary Staley-Clark, here’s looking at you, kid(cheers and applause). To your many cohorts in the deep state, God bless, and goodnight to all.(laughter and cheers)

  2. Pitiful & predictable !
    Governor Kemp desperately shuffling around the same old group of deep state flunkies . Such is The Cobb Way . I had wondered where they stuck Mike Register. Assistant Sheriff? Lol .
    Don’t miss Children of the Underground on F/X .
    God bless

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