Michael McGee of Cedartown has announced his candidacy for sheriff of Polk County.

He has been involved in law enforcement for about 15 years, including the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, the Rockmart Police Department, and the Polk County Police Department.

McGee has worked with the Polk County Police Department for the past 10 years where he is Captain over the Narcotics Enforcement team. He has taken leave from duties as part of the FBI safe streets task force.

He has achieved more than 2,900 hours of police training and is certified as an instructor and has taught many hours in firearms, defensive tactics, field sobriety and radar. He has also taught at the local and state police academies and trained and worked with the DEA and FBI.

He has earned certifications in management as well as supervision with more than 250 hours of training in supervision and management, and is a certified jailer, meth lab investigator, site safety officer, departmental training officer and field-training officer.

A graduate of Cedartown High School, he is a full time student of Shorter University where he will earn his Associate’s degree in September of this year. He plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

“When I decided to run for Sheriff, I had several goals in mind,” he said.

“My goal is to make this community a better place for the residence as well as visitors.”

Other goals are to help make Polk and its cities a better place for families and businesses, cut excessive spending, implement and adopt personnel policy.

McGee also plans to implement new programs such as “Are you ok” to assist the elderly and sick and work with the school system to start a “Champs” program.

He said he has not announced a chief deputy since he believes in promoting from within the agency.

“I want to be elected for what I am going to do for the community not by whom I have running with me,” he said.

“I believe that the Sheriff’s office should be restructured to utilize the manpower that it has to reduce the amount of overtime and expenditures. This can be achieved with the proper management skills. As an administrator I have assisted the process of maintaining a properly spent budget.”

McGee and his wife Jill have a daughter, Harley. They are active members of Victory Baptist Church.

For more information, contact McGee at 706-844-5424 after 5 p.m. pm on weekdays and anytime at night or weekends.