Craig Owens

Omega Man becomes the 1^st Black Sheriff of Cobb County, GA

By

Aaron D. Frye

11 - Spring’18 - Chi Gamma Gamma

7^th District

     On November 4^th, 2020, it was one of the most important elections that many Americans have ever seen.  This election wasn’t important just for the Presidential candidates, this included many local candidates as well. Specifically, for the Cobb County, GA ballot, Bro. Craig Owens made history as the 1^st Black Sheriff elected for Cobb County.  Bro. Owens is an initiate of “The Elite” Chi Gamma Gamma chapter of the 7^th District, #4-2012. He is married with two children.

     Bro. Owens holds multiple degrees and certificates of Scholarship mostly from institutions in his home state of GA. He has over 30 years of police experience from the Cobb County Police, Military Police, and the U.S. Army as a Division Commander over 14,000 troops in the USA, Afghanistan, and S. Korea.

     Bro. Owens was inspired to run for the Cobb County Sheriff position while working in the local police department. He had discussions with other members of law enforcement that were magnifying issues stemming from the Sheriff’s department. The disconnect between the Sheriff’s department and the local community was alarming. There were over 50 deaths in the detention centers with the current Sheriff at the time. Families of the victims were not receiving proper communication or closure of what lead up to the deaths on the previous Sheriff’s watch. Bro. Owens believed it was time to impact the community by running for Sheriff to bring honor and integrity to the position.

     His biggest hurdle towards perseverance was learning how to be a politician.  He realized his experience in the police and military campaigning wasn’t quite as transferable to political campaigning.  Bro. Owens surrounded himself with the right team and the support of the fraternity, he came out victorious in the election, but not prior to setting a few records. Bro. Owens received the most votes of any candidates for any position on the Cobb County ballot.  This confirms that even Republican voters believed in his integrity to bring honor to the position.  He was the first candidate to be disqualified from the running based on not producing a high school degree document, and then was able to return to the ballot and win the primary against two additional candidates without a run-off election needed. When the election was over, he said “This was an extremely stressful experience but honored that the hard work didn’t go to waste” as he was victorious.

Bro. Owens stated that the key objectives in the role early on include but not limited to:

• Revamping the detention center’s security measures
• Forensic audit of historical fund allocations
• Eliminate the 287 Program that assist the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agency and reallocate those resources
• Bridge the communication gap in multiple minority communities to rebuild comradery and trust

He knows his work has just begun but with the support of the fraternity surrounding him, he will see it through!