GCSD Volunteers

Genesee County Sheriff Department

ROBERT J. PICKELL

SHERIFF

GENESEE COUNTY

In 1999, Robert J. Pickell was sworn in as Sheriff of Genesee County.

Sheriff Pickell has over thirty-five years of experience in the law enforcement and criminal justice system, and five and one-half years of experience in the Central Intelligence Agency with worldwide work experience.

Early in his career, he was a teacher at Holy Redeemer High School. From 1965 through 1967 he was a City of Flint Police Officer on special assignment to the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office, and received a Professional Excellence Award from the Flint Police Department. He retired from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in 1989. At that time, he moved to Langley, Virginia, to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. He received the CIA Exceptional Performance Awards in 1991, 1992, and 1993. In 1993, he was selected by the CIA to attend the ADVANCED STUDIES Program sponsored by the FBI at the University of Virginia. He returned to Genesee County in 1994, and established Pickell Investigations and Polygraph Services in Flint, Michigan. He owned and operated this until he was appointed Sheriff in January 1999.

While with the CIA, Sheriff Pickell exposed a New York State Police corruption case involving numerous officers, which was profiled on “60 Minutes”, “Inside Edition”, and “Hard Copy”, and was the subject of a book, Good Cop, Bad Cop, by Cofer. Sheriff Pickell traveled on four continents working high profile cases for the CIA, one of which was the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. As Sheriff, he implemented the Sheriff’s Consumer Protection Service to protect senior citizens from fraud and deception. Since its inception there has been $3,000,000 returned to citizens.

Sheriff Pickell was appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm to the Governor’s Elder Abuse Task Force, where he serves as Vice-Chairperson, and the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCCOLES). He is a member of the National Sheriffs’ Association, Michigan Sheriffs’ Association, Genesee County Police Chiefs’ Association, 9-1-1 Executive Board, Law Enforcement Officers Regional Training Commission.