Candidate: Michelle Cook

The Cook family moved to Clay County in the early 80’s when Michelle’s father, a Navy veteran, was stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field.  Michelle attended Orange Park Middle School and is a Clay High School graduate.  While in school, Michelle played many sports, including softball and volleyball.  

Michelle entered the law enforcement profession as a Patrol Officer, working as a beat cop on the street.  With earned promotions throughout her 26year career, Michelle retired as a 3-star Director, and 3rd in command, from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, a 3,300-person agency and the nation’s 25th largest police department.  As Director of Patrol and Enforcement, her responsibilities included the strategic deployment and activities of over 1,000 first responders and community relations personnel, and direct management of a budget of over $100 million.  She also oversaw the over 1,000 special events that occurred in the Downtown area each year.  She served as the agency lead on collective bargaining with the Fraternal Order of Police and routinely worked with elected officials while promoting the law enforcement mission. 

In 2017 Michelle accepted the position of Chief of Police for the City of Atlantic Beach, Fl.   The Atlantic Beach Police Department (ABPD) is a full-service agency with a 6-million-dollar budget, serves approximately 14,000 residents and handles approximately 25,000 calls for service each year.  Under her leadership, the City of Atlantic Beach saw a decrease in the crime rate and improved employee and citizen morale and support.  She is credited with successfully leading the ABPD through the Florida Commission for Law Enforcement Accreditation process. She is also credited for writing the City of Atlantic Beach All-Hazard Response (hurricane) plan.  She is an active member of the Florida Police Chief’s Association and the FBI Law Enforcement Executives Alumni.  

Career highlights include:

- Training Academy Director; commanded the firing range, recruiting, basic recruit training, Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission Trust Fund Advanced and Specialized Training and all police and corrections basic and in-service training requirements

- Assistant Chief of Narcotics and Vice; oversaw all undercover narcotics and vice operations, internet crimes against children, technical support, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area member  

- Chief of Professional Standards; commanded the firing range, training academy, polygraph unit, inspections, internal affairs, accreditation, crime analysis, continuous improvement, fusion center and information systems management

- Served as the Incident Commander during SWAT/Negotiator call-outs

- Commander of the Intelligence Unit; represented JSO on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, North Florida Fusion Cell, and served as key agency liaison to US Marshals and FBI

- Incident Commander for the North Florida All Hazards Team for hurricane and crisis response.  Credentialed through the Emergency Management Institute as an Operations Section Chief and Incident Commander. Michelle has served as Incident Commander and Operations Section Chief for over 500 unplanned incidents and pre-planned events in the region, combining her extensive knowledge of the Incident Command System with real world experience handling complex critical incidents

-Instructor/Consultant for organization that provides training nationally for Active Shooter Incident Management.  With her extensive experience and training combined with her hundreds of documented responses to critical incidents, she is one of the lead instructors for the “Command” portion of the training curriculum and provides crucial input and feedback on course development                                           

Michelle has a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from UNF and a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in Public Administration.  She is also a graduate of the FBI Law Enforcement Executives training and a member of the Florida Police Chief’s Association.

Michelle has earned numerous awards for her service, to include:

- Law Enforcement Legacy Leader Award

- Contributing Writer/Award Winner – “Police Director’s Consortium”

- Chad Reed First Responder Award for Hurricane preparedness and response

- 6 Pillars of Character Award Winner

Michelle is married to Don, and they have 6 children between them, 4 of which were adopted out of the local foster care system.  

Michelle has spent her entire career in service to her community and looks forward to bringing her tough, proven leadership to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. To learn more about her campaign, please visit VoteMichelleCook.com or Michelle Cook for Sheriff on Facebook.