Georgia

Georgia has no statewide mandate for county-level civilian oversight of sheriffs. The Athens-Clarke County Public Safety Civilian Oversight Board — a unified-government body — is the only Georgia county-level body whose statutory jurisdiction explicitly includes the Sheriff's Office. All other major Georgia counties (Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Chatham, Clayton, Richmond) rely on the sheriff's own internal affairs.
Sheriff oversight
1/159 counties with a dedicated body 0 reports from those bodies
Other oversight
0 Civil Grand Jury reports 0 statewide oversight reports
Compare costs Compare Georgia sheriff departments side by side
0 sheriffs named · of 159 counties
$1.65B total budget (latest per county)
21,389 total FTE (latest per county)
Population, budget, $ per resident, staffing, and jail capacity across all 159 counties.

Data from CA State Controller's Office and CA State Sheriffs' Association.

State context

Georgia sheriffs are elected constitutional officers under Ga. Const. Art. IX §I, par. III and OCGA Title 15, Chapter 16. County commissions have no operational authority over sheriffs and cannot discipline, direct, or remove them. The commission's only lever is the budget appropriation process.

Georgia enacted no legislation during 2020–2023 creating or requiring county-level civilian oversight of sheriffs. The legislative response to the 2020 reform wave was protective of police: HB 286 (2021) prohibited local governments from cutting police funding by more than 5% annually. The Georgia POST Council (state-level) is the primary accountability mechanism — a credentialing body, not a civilian oversight body.

In five counties — Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Athens-Clarke (unified), and Glynn — patrol and general law enforcement are handled by a separate County Police Department, leaving the Sheriff with the constitutional minimum (jail, courts, civil process, warrants). For those counties the Sheriff's published operating budget is courts + jail only, and per-resident comparisons against Sheriff-as-primary-LE counties are not apples-to-apples.

Counties

1 of 159 counties have a dedicated civilian sheriff oversight body. Highlighted rows have an established body. See methodology for scoring.

# County Status (date) Started (date) LE capability Independence
01 Clarke Active 5 years 2021 8/40 53/100
02 Appling — — — —
03 Atkinson — — — —
04 Bacon — — — —
05 Baker — — — —
06 Baldwin — — — —
07 Banks — — — —
08 Barrow — — — —
09 Bartow — — — —
10 Ben Hill — — — —
11 Berrien — — — —
12 Bibb — — — —
13 Bleckley — — — —
14 Brantley — — — —
15 Brooks — — — —
16 Bryan — — — —
17 Bulloch — — — —
18 Burke — — — —
19 Butts — — — —
20 Calhoun — — — —
21 Camden — — — —
22 Candler — — — —
23 Carroll — — — —
24 Catoosa — — — —
25 Charlton — — — —
26 Chatham — — — —
27 Chattahoochee — — — —
28 Chattooga — — — —
29 Cherokee — — — —
30 Clay — — — —
31 Clayton — — — —
32 Clinch — — — —
33 Cobb — — — —
34 Coffee — — — —
35 Colquitt — — — —
36 Columbia — — — —
37 Cook — — — —
38 Coweta — — — —
39 Crawford — — — —
40 Crisp — — — —
41 Dade — — — —
42 Dawson — — — —
43 Decatur — — — —
44 DeKalb — — — —
45 Dodge — — — —
46 Dooly — — — —
47 Dougherty — — — —
48 Douglas — — — —
49 Early — — — —
50 Echols — — — —
51 Effingham — — — —
52 Elbert — — — —
53 Emanuel — — — —
54 Evans — — — —
55 Fannin — — — —
56 Fayette — — — —
57 Floyd — — — —
58 Forsyth — — — —
59 Franklin — — — —
60 Fulton — — — —
61 Gilmer — — — —
62 Glascock — — — —
63 Glynn — — — —
64 Gordon — — — —
65 Grady — — — —
66 Greene — — — —
67 Gwinnett — — — —
68 Habersham — — — —
69 Hall — — — —
70 Hancock — — — —
71 Haralson — — — —
72 Harris — — — —
73 Hart — — — —
74 Heard — — — —
75 Henry — — — —
76 Houston — — — —
77 Irwin — — — —
78 Jackson — — — —
79 Jasper — — — —
80 Jeff Davis — — — —
81 Jefferson — — — —
82 Jenkins — — — —
83 Johnson — — — —
84 Jones — — — —
85 Lamar — — — —
86 Lanier — — — —
87 Laurens — — — —
88 Lee — — — —
89 Liberty — — — —
90 Lincoln — — — —
91 Long — — — —
92 Lowndes — — — —
93 Lumpkin — — — —
94 Macon — — — —
95 Madison — — — —
96 Marion — — — —
97 McDuffie — — — —
98 McIntosh — — — —
99 Meriwether — — — —
100 Miller — — — —
101 Mitchell — — — —
102 Monroe — — — —
103 Montgomery — — — —
104 Morgan — — — —
105 Murray — — — —
106 Muscogee — — — —
107 Newton — — — —
108 Oconee — — — —
109 Oglethorpe — — — —
110 Paulding — — — —
111 Peach — — — —
112 Pickens — — — —
113 Pierce — — — —
114 Pike — — — —
115 Polk — — — —
116 Pulaski — — — —
117 Putnam — — — —
118 Quitman — — — —
119 Rabun — — — —
120 Randolph — — — —
121 Richmond — — — —
122 Rockdale — — — —
123 Schley — — — —
124 Screven — — — —
125 Seminole — — — —
126 Spalding — — — —
127 Stephens — — — —
128 Stewart — — — —
129 Sumter — — — —
130 Talbot — — — —
131 Taliaferro — — — —
132 Tattnall — — — —
133 Taylor — — — —
134 Telfair — — — —
135 Terrell — — — —
136 Thomas — — — —
137 Tift — — — —
138 Toombs — — — —
139 Towns — — — —
140 Treutlen — — — —
141 Troup — — — —
142 Turner — — — —
143 Twiggs — — — —
144 Union — — — —
145 Upson — — — —
146 Walker — — — —
147 Walton — — — —
148 Ware — — — —
149 Warren — — — —
150 Washington — — — —
151 Wayne — — — —
152 Webster — — — —
153 Wheeler — — — —
154 White — — — —
155 Whitfield — — — —
156 Wilcox — — — —
157 Wilkes — — — —
158 Wilkinson — — — —
159 Worth — — — —