It’s been a busy first six months on the job for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s new director.
Investigative Reporter Mark Winne talked to Mike Register, who will hit the six-month mark on Feb. 25.
Register has taken on a laundry list of high-profile cases since he’s been in the position, from high-profile human trafficking cases to gang indictments to cases of officers using excessive force.
Since Register became the agency’s director, there have been gang investigations in more than 80 counties.
“There’s a lot that has happened in the last six months,” Register said. “I don’t think that people understand the extent of the gang problem in Georgia. I didn’t until I got here.”
Register said he was also immediately confronted with dozens of domestic terrorism incidents linked to opposition to the Atlanta Police’s proposed public safety training facility on Atlanta-owned land in Dekalb County.
In response, Register called for the development of a federal, state and local task force that included prosecutors from Attorney General Chris Carr’s office and DeKalb County D.A. Sherry Boston’s office.
“What I saw is that there needed to be more focus on the investigation, hence the development of the task force with the GBI taking the lead on the investigation part.”
Register said in the midst of the investigation, a man encamped in the vicinity of the site, Manuel Teran, shot and wounded a state trooper and was killed in the return fire.
“I’m not going to debate Mr. Teran’s character, but the fact is, that for whatever reason, he consciously made a decision to fire on law enforcement and they returned fire in self-defense.”
Register said that to address the controversy swirling around the shooting, the GBI took the extraordinary steps of releasing a photo of Teran’s gun, ballistics information linking the shooting to it and a gun trace tying the gun to Teran.
“So many false narratives had been given that we owned it to the citizens of Georgia to put the facts out,” Register said.
Register said that even before he took office, the GBI was deep into a complex investigation into contraband, corruption and more focused on Smith State Prison that in recent weeks led to the arrest of now-former Warden Brian Adams on corruption-related charges.
“The GBI has a history of being an impartial investigative entity when it comes to public corruption,” Register said.
He said the GBI’s ability to deliver impartial investigations is exemplified by a request he got from the Paulding County Sheriff on Friday to investigate a deputy body-slamming a man last year.
The video that recently surfaced went viral and stirred controversy. Deputies said Tyler Canaris was resisting arrest, but his lawyers said the video clearly shows the officer slam Canaris to the ground with no provocation.
Register told Winne he took on that investigation without hesitating.
“We are here for our local partners, but we’re also here for the citizen,” Register said.
He said about two-thirds of the people he oversees, like crime lab scientists, are not agents, but he wants to take care of all GBI employees.
“Man, what a great bunch of people that work here,” Register said. “They are dedicated to the mission, and I want to make sure that they’re adequately compensated to the point where they want to remain at the GBI.”
Register said the GBI is such a highly-regarded agency that they have more than 200 applicants for just eight special agent vacancies.