MARIETTA, Ga. — Cobb County’s soon-to-be public safety director said gangs and technology will be among the top challenges he’ll face starting next month. Mike Register is leaving his job leading the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Gang activity is a local problem in Cobb and throughout metro Atlanta. Register believes his brief stint as GBI director will help him bring a broader perspective to the problem.
"When you look at Georgia with 159 counties, I submit to you 159 counties have a gang issue," Register told 11Alive News Thursday.
Register led the GBI for less than a year – and jumped at a chance to return to the top law enforcement post among his friends and neighbors in Cobb County.
"It’s not all about enforcement relating to gangs," he said. "The first step is to keep kids out of gangs. And the kids that are in, we try to get them out."
Register told us Cobb County residents will be key players in the county’s ongoing struggle with gang crime when he returns next month.
"Gangs continually recruit. And we see that recruitment being conducted on very young kids. trying to get the kids into gangs," Register said. "That’s where we have to, as a community, step in."
Aside from leading the GBI since last August, Register was public safety director in Cobb County – the job he’ll resume in August. He was also police chief in Cobb and Clayton counties – and was in U.S. Army special forces for 20 years before that.
Register said he will collaborate with residents and law enforcement to develop ways to fight gangs – and to keep gang recruiters from using technology to make gang life seem appealing to kids.
"The community that we serve is changing so drastically with technology other forms of sophistication," he said. "And public safety has to be prepared to respond accordingly."
Register returns to Cobb County next month. When the governor replaces him, the state will have hired its fourth GBI director to serve in the last six years.