Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat serves as the 28th Sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia, overseeing a staff of 1,075 employees, including 800 sworn and 275 civilians, and manages an annual budget of more than $143 million. Since taking office on January 1, 2021, he has achieved unprecedented success within the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office with respect to recruitment and retention, jail reform, courthouse security as well as crime prevention, and public safety.
Upon taking office, Sheriff Labat changed the mission of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to one word — Service. As he believes that quality customer service is the cornerstone of any organization. In less than 3 years, Sheriff Labat has secured a 36% pay raise for sworn staff, a 16% pay raise for civilian staff and also implemented a hiring bonus of $10,500. He successfully brokered detainee housing agreements with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Atlanta (Atlanta City Detention Center) moving hundreds of detainees and established an Inmate Advocacy Unit to address dangerous overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail. In his efforts to reduce crime and enhance public safety across the county, he created a fugitive apprehension team and established full-time deployment of field operations to include the F.A.S.T., Traffic and Motors Units.
With more than 30 years of success in the public safety sector and a decade as Chief of the City of Atlanta Department of Corrections, Sheriff Labat has a proven track record as a decisive leader and change agent. He has reputation for motivating his workforce through active and engaged, hands-on leadership. As Chief of Corrections, Labat maintained a nationally accredited detention facility, pioneered youth diversion programs, senior citizen meal service programs and the nationally acclaimed PAT3 reentry program. He was named Jail Administrator of the Year by the Georgia Jail Association in 2015 and 2019.
Sheriff Labat served as the President of the Georgia Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in 2011, President of the Georgia Jail Association in 2016 and was named the GJA Jail Administrator of the Year in 2015 and 2019. Additionally, he was invited to serve as a witness at the Social Problems Hearing for the President’s 2020 Commission for Law Enforcement and Justice. He currently serves as a member of the FirstNet Health & Wellness Committee and chair of the Major County Sheriff’s Association Detention & Jail Committee.
Sheriff Labat began his career in 1988 as a detention officer, working his way up the ladder over a 30 year career. As a native Atlantan, and lifelong resident of Fulton County, he is a proud graduate of Fredrick Douglass High School and Clark Atlanta University, and he earned his Masters in Public Administration from Columbus State University. He served for five years as a coach with the Sandtown Youth Sports Association and volunteered with the North Atlanta High School PTSA and Basketball Booster
Club.
He and his wife, Jacki, share four adult children and two rescue pups – Hugo & Finesse. They reside in Midwest Cascade in
Southwest Atlanta.
