Sheriff Steve Cronic was elected to the Office of Sheriff in Hall County in November of 2000 and took office on January 1, 2001.  He entered law enforcement at the age of 20 as an Enforcement Officer with the State of Georgia Department of Transportation, worked as a police officer with the City of Gainesville Police Department, and eventually as an investigator with the Hall County District Attorney’s office.  He entered the private sector taking a job as a Corporate Security Manager with Digital Communications Associates and later, a position as a Regional Fraud Supervisor assigned to the southeastern United States with American International Group Insurance.  His journey to the Sheriff’s Office is a 23 year journey to a dream.

When Sheriff Cronic took office in 2001 he had many other goals and objectives in mind for the department.  A big part of that was the link between the department and the community.  One of the first was to begin a summer camp for kids.  His goal was to develop a program that went hand in hand with the DARE program.  In June of 2001, the very first DARE to Dream Camp was held with 100 kids from around the county. The name of the camp and program has changed to the ADVANCE Summer Camp for Kids, but it is still a big success with over 300 kids registering this year for the seventh annual camp.  The Sheriff is very proud of the fact that this camp is not funded by taxpayer dollars but by partnerships with the business community.

                      Sheriff Cronic created the Victim Services Program for the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.  This program provides immediate and long term support for families and victims of violent crimes and traumatic events. The program puts the victims of violent crimes in contact with a Victim Services representative within the first hour of the incident.  This program is fully funded by a grant from CJCC and is staffed by two full time employees.  It has been a big success and the department constantly receives Thank You letters from the community for the assistance they have received.

                  Sheriff Cronic took a hard line against the growing gang problem in the community.  He developed a program that would allow citizens to call in and report gang graffiti, and either Sheriff’s Deputies or the county public works department would go out and remove the graffiti.  Gang graffiti is not just a nuisance, but is what gang members use to communicate with one another, and with the removal of the graffiti the gang activity has decreased remarkably.  The Sheriff also worked diligently with the judges of our county to make sure that any gang member who openly identified themselves as being in a gang, or who committed a crime in the name of their gang, would be prosecuted and would serve time on the federal level. The Gang Task Force now cleans up graffiti on a weekly basis.

                  Sheriff Cronic wanting to provide better customer service and protection to the citizens of Hall County made significant changes to the Uniform Patrol Division’s district map. He reduced the area a deputy patrolled by creating four new patrol districts. This was the first improvement to the county district map in over 12 years. He increased the number of patrol districts from eight to twelve. This placed officer’s back up closer, reduced response times to calls, and increased the visibility of patrol officers. Again, Sheriff Cronic funded this by hiring 8 new patrolmen through a COPS Grant. In the FYI 2008 budget Sheriff Cronic has secured funding to add 16 new deputies and once again reduce the area deputies cover by increasing the Uniform Patrol Division’s county district map from 12 to 15 districts.

                    Sheriff Cronic has supported a countywide special option sales tax program that replaced the Sheriff's Office antiquated radio system with a “state of the art” 800 megahertz system. This system replaced all old radio equipment with brand new high tech radios equipped with emergency buttons that allows officers to call for back up or alert dispatch that they are in extreme danger by simply pushing a button.

                   Hall County being home to Lake Sidney Lanier requires Sheriff Cronic to operates an underwater Search and Recovery Team to recover drowning victims and evidence from Lake Lanier. The team is often called upon by other Sheriffs and agencies to assist in victim and evidence recovery. To protect his divers Sheriff Cronic secured a State Grant of $35,000 through State Representative James Mills to purchase a Side Scan Sonar to aid in the recovery of drowning victims and evidence in the lake. This devise allows divers to locate victims in the sometimes extreme depths of Lake Lanier and make only one dive to recover the victim. 

Sheriff Cronic’s Honor Guard recently competed in the National FOP Honor Guard Competition in Washington. The Honor Guard placed 3rd in the national competition. The Honor Guard as a service to the citizens of Hall County marched guard for 24 hours on Memorial Day at the Veterans Section of Memorial Park Cemetery. This was quite a fitting tribute to the citizens of Hall County that served our country. During the 24 hour guard there was no time that citizens were not on hand to view the hourly ceremony.

                 In response to the growing problem of an overcrowded Detention Center, Sheriff Cronic converted the vacated Regional Youth Development Center into Hall County’s first Female Work Release providing a rehabilitation program for female offenders that is able to support itself through collecting living expenses from employed female inmates.  It also allows female inmates who are incarcerated for drug related charges to be able to continue out-patient drug abuse treatment while serving a sentence, something that was not possible for female inmates prior to the program.

                 Next on Sheriff Cronic’s list was to start the Hall County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Unit.  This Unit has been very beneficial to the department as well as to the community.  The Sheriff recognized that a growing number of experienced law enforcement officers were moving into the private sector through new opportunities and retirement.  He further recognized that for most of these men and women, regardless of what they were doing at the time, they would always be public servants at heart.  By establishing the Reserve Program these experienced men and women are able to volunteer their time to work on major events such as parades, rowing competitions and other functions requiring large law enforcement presence, thus leaving time for full time officers to continue their regular law enforcement functions.  Several of these reserve officers have volunteered thousand’s of hours to the department and the community.  They have acted in every conceivable function of the Sheriff’s office and have saved the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in salaries and overtime.  The experience that they bring to the department is invaluable.  Further, these officers have been awarded medals for heroism while serving in the Reserve Unit.

	With the rising cost of operations and requests to lower the budget, Sheriff Cronic located new resources for funding portions of the Sheriff’s Office special operations by partnering with private enterprise.  Through these partnerships, the Sheriff’s Office has received donations that help support specialized functions such as ADVANCE with the donation of a Toyota pickup from Milton Martin Toyota for use by ADVANCE officers, donations from Fieldale helped fund the recent addition of four Canine (K-9) units, one for each shift.
During summer months, Park Marine donates a pair of jet skis that are used by the Reserve Unit to Patrol activities on Lake Lanier.  Also, through Homeland Security Grants, Sheriff Cronic has received monies allowing the department to purchase a Patrol boat that is utilized daily on Lake Lanier and is especially helpful during the peak summer months, as well as a SWAT response vehicle and an Incident Command Vehicle.

                  To strengthen the war on drugs especially in schools Sheriff Cronic secured private donations to purchase 2 drug dogs. The drug dogs where assigned to School Resource Officers at two area high schools. The drug dogs are utilized to conduct unannounced searches at all of Hall Counties 12 High and Middle Schools.

                 In addition to the drug dogs, Sheriff Cronic initiated a reward program in the Hall County School System for information leading to drug arrests or seizures. Large posters were placed in all 12 high and middle schools asking students to join the fight against drugs in their school and provided a means to collect a $200.00 reward. The program allows students to confidentially provide information to the School Resource Officers when they learn of drugs in the school. This program has been very effective in ridding Hall County Schools of drugs. The reward has been confidentially paid many times and led to a number of arrest and drug seizures in schools. The reward is paid from funds seized from other drug dealers.

                 Sheriff Cronic serves on a variety of community and public service boards including the Edmondson Telford Center for Children.  The ET Center is a central safe haven for children of abuse to have contact with medical personnel and law enforcement softening the impact and disruption caused by their victimization.  Sheriff Cronic participates regularly with the TV18 Government Channel in relaying important issues to Hall County Citizens concerning crime prevention, drug awareness and traffic safety.  He also sponsors the Hall County Sheriff’s Office Bike Program.  The program was organized to provide bicycles to children at Christmas.  These children are between the ages of 2 and 15 and belong to working families that could not afford the expense of a new bike.

                   Sheriff Cronic recognizes the importance of equal services to all citizens and serves as the lead agency for the Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad or MANS Unit and the Gainesville-Hall County Gang Task Force.  Both divisions are partnerships with other jurisdictions within Hall County combined to address the growing drug and gang problems throughout the county.  Currently, Hall County MANS is recognized as a unit on the front lines in addressing problems with the emergence of Methamphetamine and clandestine labs and responds to methamphetamine labs in jurisdictions outside of Hall County when requested.  MANS is on the forefront of this problem largely due to a COPS grant secured by Sheriff Cronic which allowed the unit to be properly trained and equipped in this area.  Several years ago Hall County was recognized as one of the major clandestine lab counties in North Georgia.  Through investigative efforts and strategies, labs have been almost non-existent in Hall County for the past two years.

                   The utilization of a Four Year Business Plan was introduced to the department by Sheriff Cronic.  Each year the division commanders are responsible for submitting a proposed four year budget plan based on the anticipated changes in population, recent criminal trends and other factors that will have an impact on the Services of the Sheriff’s Office.

                     Sheriff Cronic was appointed in March 2005 by Governor Sonny Perdue to the County and Municipal Probation Advisory Council.  The purpose of the advisory council is to provide for the registration, application and approval of private probation entities; to insure that uniform professional and contract standards are practiced and maintained by private corporations, enterprises or agencies in rendering general misdemeanor probation supervision, counseling and collection services to the courts; and to provide for the inspection and investigation of such entities and enforcement of registration requirements by the council.  Sheriff Cronic was elected by the other members of the council as the chair after only one year of service.

                     Sheriff Cronic was selected most popular elected official two years in a row by Lanier Magazine. His hard work and dedication to the community was rewarded and evidenced by being the only Hall County Sheriff to run unopposed for his second term of office in modern history of Hall County in 2004.

In 2006, Sheriff Cronic was chosen to receive the Governor’s Public Safety Award for Contribution to the Profession.  The Sheriff was one of only 3 recipients of this award.  In 2005, Sheriff Cronic was chosen by Brenau University, his alma mater, to be inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame.  Inductees are chosen because they have made an outstanding contribution to their country, state, community and Brenau University.  These alumni perpetuate the excellence of Brenau through their leadership, loyal support, service and dedication.

                    Sheriff Cronic is very active in the Georgia Sheriff’s Association. He has hosted the Sheriff’s Conference several times during his tenure as Sheriff. He is often called upon by the Georgia Sheriff’s Association to assist in efforts at the Capitol to support legislative efforts of the Sheriff’s Association. He has a special place in his heart for the Sheriff’s Youth Homes. He holds an annual motorcycle ride fundraiser annually and secures many contributions from local corporate sponsors. Sheriff Cronic has personally funded the postage and other overages for the fundraising events. He plans to add an additional golf tournament this year to continue his support of the Sheriff’s Youth homes.

                   Sheriff Cronic’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Brenau University, Gainesville, Georgia.  He is a graduate of the Georgia Police Academy and the FBI National Academy.  He is also a graduate of the National College of District Attorney’s Major Crime School and Special Investigations School and a graduate of the International Association of Arson Investigators Arson School.