Q. What have been your biggest accomplishments this first year?

A. The accomplishments we’ve had in my first year didn’t happen in this office right here. They happened with all these people around me. I’m very proud of what the investigative divisions do in the crime lab, our medical examiner’s office, the Georgia Crime Information Center and throughout the building.

We’ve had a good year, but it’s not because of anything I’ve done. It’s because of the people here. I’m here to support them. I try to get them the resources they need — keep our positions filled, keep hiring and looking for qualified, dedicated people who go to work for a purpose every day, because that’s what we do.

Q. Do you have a shortage of agents at this point?

A. No, we don’t. I forget what our vacancy numbers are right now, but a lot of that is due to retirements and so forth, and that’s what we see quite often around the agency. But we’re actively recruiting. We’re actively going through hiring processes to fill those positions and keep them filled.

Q. You have said the agency has to continue to address violent crime and gang activity across the state. You have also said the GBI relies heavily on partnerships around the state to do that. Have you made progress?

A. I think we’ve made strides in addressing it. Have we stopped it? No, I don’t think so. 

But we opened a gang office in the Macon/central Georgia area last year. We got funding from the Legislature this past year, with the governor’s support as well. We’ll be opening a gang office in Columbus. And the success of the Atlanta gang unit, and then what the one in Middle Georgia and Macon has done up to this point, I anticipate the one in Columbus doing as well. 

The successes we’ve had, and I think that we will have, go straight back to those partnerships that we have with local, state and federal involvement.

There’s outreach being done, too, whether it’s GBI or some of our local partners out there that are trying to do outreach into our communities, showing the dangers of being involved in gangs and hopefully trying to identify alternative methods for our young people. You need community involvement, too. When I say team effort, it includes the community as well.

Q. When we talked last year, I asked if you had personally sat down with gang members. And you said years back, you had. You also said you’d consider doing that again going forward. Have you met with any in the last year?

A. No, I have not. I have gone around the state. The attorney general, Chris Carr, has been going around the state for some time now, and I’ve probably been going for a year or better now, going around the state for these gang roundtables. He has gang roundtable meetings in different communities, and it’s bringing in local, state, federal law enforcement partners, community groups, civic organizations and school systems.

We had one in Valdosta recently to discuss what’s going on in the community.What can we do as partners to assist? 

We talk about what’s being done in other parts of the state that may work in this part of the state. It’s trying to approach [issues] from different angles, not just the proactive or reactive side that law enforcement is in all the time but really reaching out and trying to do things to get into the communities to show the downside of gang activity and try to help our young people.

Q. Does Georgia have sufficient laws at the state level to deal with police use of force, specifically officer-involved shootings?

A. I think so. I think Georgia has good use-of-force laws when it pertains to law enforcement officers in the state. I think we’re better off than a lot of states out there.