Home Appointments Sheriff
Sheriff
Fulton County Sheriff's Office, Georgia
| Appointee | Jackie Barrett |
|---|---|
| Role | Sheriff |
| Organisation | Fulton County Sheriff's Office, Georgia |
| Domain | Law Enforcement |
| Start | 1 January 1993 |
| End | 31 December 2004 |
| Notes | First woman elected sheriff in Georgia history; also first African-American woman sheriff in the United States |
Jacquelyn Harrison Barrett was elected sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia on 3 November 1992, defeating Robert McMichaels in the Democratic primary and Morris Chappell (Republican) in the general election. She took office on 1 January 1993 and served three terms, until her suspension by Governor Sonny Perdue in August 2004; her final term formally ended 31 December 2004.
Barrett's election is the best-known sheriff first-woman event in the dataset: she was the first African-American woman elected sheriff in the United States, full stop. Fulton County — Atlanta and surrounding municipalities — was at the time the largest sheriff's department in Georgia, with approximately 800 sworn personnel.
The "Georgia state first" reading
No prior woman is documented as having been elected sheriff in Georgia by any source surveyed. Extensive searches against state historical archives, sheriff-association records, and the Georgia Sheriffs' Association surface no earlier woman sheriff in the state. The dataset records Barrett as Georgia's first-woman sheriff event on the strength of:
- her own well-documented 1992 election, and
- the absence of any earlier counter-example in the available record.
If a future research pass identifies an earlier Georgia woman sheriff (in any county, by any pathway), this entry's framing will be revised accordingly. For now, Barrett's record is verified by primary-source archive material at the University of Georgia (Russell Library) and by contemporary press coverage.
Background
Before her election, Barrett served a 10-year tenure as a curriculum specialist for the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, developing the training programmes used by Georgia's police and sheriff's offices. She served two years as chief administrative officer for the Fulton County Sheriff's Office and became director of the Fulton County Public Safety Training Center in 1987 — the immediate background from which her 1992 candidacy emerged.
Tenure and end of service
Barrett managed the Fulton County Sheriff's Department through the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, opened the South Fulton Precinct, and built a recognised community-policing programme. A reverse-discrimination civil case filed against her department by 18 deputy sheriffs eventually triggered the 2004 suspension by Governor Perdue.
