Former GBI director sheds light on his decision to take new job in Cobb County

WSBTV.com News Staff
·3 min read

Channel 2 Action News is learning more about a leadership change at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation after the former director made a decision to leave for a new job with Cobb County.

Mike Register, in his new office in downtown Marietta, told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne he was torn in some ways about leaving the GBI after not quite a year as director.

But he says Cobb County is a great community he loves with a cutting-edge public safety apparatus and he has no regrets.

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Mike Register spent his final day on the state payroll as director of the GBI on Sunday.

The next day he was sitting in the office that he says he plans to occupy for the rest of his career as Public Safety Director for Cobb County.

“I left the GBI because I love Cobb County and I wanted to come back to this position,” Register said. “What do you think of the GBI?” Winne asked. “I think it’s a great agency, probably one of the greatest law enforcement agencies in the United States,” Register responded.

Register spent most of his law enforcement career in Cobb County including 20 years as a police officer, then another two as chief and a year in his first stint as public safety director.

“If I had to make the choice again tomorrow, I’d make the same choice. I’d come back to Cobb County,” Register said.

“How hard was it to tell Governor Kemp you were leaving?” Winne asked. “It was very hard,” Register responded. “Gov. Kemp is a great leader and I enjoyed tremendously working for him and the support he gave me, but after our conversation he understood.”

Register says his time with GBI underscored Gov. Kemp had it right in setting fighting gangs as a key to fighting crime in general.

“What were the most important cases while you were there?” Winne asked. “Well, of course, it would have to be what’s been happening at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center,” Register responded.

Register says putting together a coalition of state, local, and federal law enforcement led by the GBI to address alleged domestic terrorism incidents aimed at stopping a new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center ranked with gangs and human trafficking for the time it required of him as director.

He says while the GBI has to be asked by certain officials to work most of the cases it handles, a new law passed during Register’s tenure allows the GBI to initiate domestic terrorism investigations on its own.

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Register says he recommended his assistant director, GBI veteran Chris Hosey, to Gov. Kemp as his successor.

“Chris Hosey, I think he’s one of the finest individuals I’ve ever met,” Register said. “Chris Hosey’s gonna be sworn in tomorrow and I plan to be there. I’ll see Gov. Kemp and I’m excited for Chris and I’m excited to be part of the swearing-in ceremony.”

Register says he believes he left the GBI better than he found it, realigning the agency to provide separate career tracks for those who carry a badge and gun and the majority of the employees who do not, along with instituting a formal promotion process for some high-level posts that previously had simply been appointed.

“How did the pay and benefits for you as GBI director compare to coming back to Cobb County where you spent much of your law enforcement career?” Winne asked. “It was not the determining factor but the pay and benefits were better here at the county,” Register responded. “But I will say this. The great men and women that work at the state, they really need to get paid a lot more. They do a hell of a job down there.”

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