During September’s Columbia County Board of Education regular session, Capt. Gary Owens was appointed and approved as the future Director of Public Safety following the present director’s retirement in November.
Current Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police, Lance Poss, has been a longtime friend of Owens – they attended police chief academy together.
“We became closer and closer, and I’ve always known him – I knew he was starting a police department and so I reached out,” said Owens.
Owens contacted Poss offering his services to help him out – to which Poss immediately mentioned the open Captain position.
Originally from Germany, Owens’ family moved to the United States when he was about in the fourth grade, and he started to attend Grovetown Elementary School where he learned English.
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Although there were times when Owens’ wanted to move back to Germany, he could not force himself to leave the place where he felt most at home.
“Life is a series of crossroads. isn’t it? And you can never regret what road you went down – you just gotta ‘let’s do it. Let’s keep moving forward,’” he said.
At just 17, Owens was considering the military as a career, but he occasionally washed patrol cars.
“There was a new police Chief of Police, and this guy was my mentor. He was just amazing. I was kind of told to do it – you didn’t tell the cops no, right? It just became an attractive [job] too.”
Following his high school graduation, Owens became a part of the force in 1984.
Through his mentor’s encouragement, Owens mailed an application to the police academy despite his worries about the career path.
“I was like, ‘I’m a 17-year-old kid getting ready to make life and death decisions on people, and I was really scared by it,” said Owens. “But I felt his confidence and he was teaching me and coaching me to push myself and others.”
During his almost 40 years in law enforcement, Owens has worked in other places besides Columbia County. He also spent some time in Atlanta.
One position he held was the Assistant Director of Police and Fire for the City of Grovetown.
“Their chief left after about a year and then I became their chief and director for that time, and I enjoyed it. Loved it,” he said. “Altogether put in over 20 years with the city police and there came a time to say, ‘you know what? I’m tired and maybe I just don’t want to do this anymore, so then I quit and retired.”
However, as a result of a long friendship with several other officers Owens found himself accepting a position as a fatality investigator until he later became a captain with Columbia County’s Board of Education Police Force.
“Over my career there’ve been so many amazing moments,” he said. “When I went to work, every day was something different and I think the biggest thing is being recognized by the people you work with.”
As an example, Owens mentioned how he was the only officer in Columbia County to be selected as the Chamber of Commerce Officer of the Year.
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“Out of everybody in Columbia County, I had twice in my career,” he said. “To me, that was really a huge milestone because I was selected by the community. That was one good moment out of so many; working out of so many divisions, helping so many people, I felt it was really good.”
Owens said he believes it is important to remember that everyone is a human being and not just a ticket number. As proven by the dozens of letters from thankful citizens that he may or may not use as wallpaper one day, Owens achieves seeing people as individuals by picturing them as his own family.
“If you have an accident, it’s your worst day … if I can guide you through that and say, ‘hey let’s fix this. Let’s get insurance together.’ Then follow up the next day with ‘did you need anything else?’” he said. “That goes a long way than just ‘here’s your accident report and the number.’”
Connecting with people in the community has always been his favorite part of the job, and he intends to keep building those relationships throughout his career as the new director.
As a trained master instructor, Owens is planning on continually teaching his officers extensive safety procedures, wisdom from his own experiences and implementing a focus in getting home safe at the end of the day.
“What reaffirms my choice of being a police officer is … seeing a rookie police officer in five or six years get recognized by his agency and knowing that maybe we had a part in that or maybe something we taught them stuck with them,” he said.
Owens said simple tactics like teaching officers not to unnecessarily speed, regularly wearing seat belts and utilizing body armor can help keep officers safe when protecting the public.
“Complacency will kill you,” he said. “If we can teach these guys to do this stuff and make it a routine, then that’s drastically reducing the amount of deaths we have in the country.”
Owens said he is most looking forward to making a positive, lasting impact as director through building connections and helping officers build relationships with students. He believes it is important for the community to trust its officers and police force, so families will feel comfortable enough to share and inform them of problems.
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For Owens, a connected community is an approved community, and being a great director will only further this effort. Among being empathetic and compassionate, he said a director needs to have integrity, negotiation skills and great people skills. He shared that Poss was a great example of what makes a director great, and he said he only hopes he can make Poss’ legacy proud.
“A good director and police chief should be an inspiration to the officers that they work into command. They’ve got to see our vision, the district’s vision, and get them motivated towards that vision,” said Owens. “If I could be half of the director that he has been then we have set the milestone.”
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
