John Cary Bittick

John Cary Bittick served as Sheriff of Monroe County, Georgia from 1983 until his retirement in 2018. During that time, he managed a full-service, nationally accredited law enforcement agency of 130 personnel and operated a correctional facility with nationally accredited medical services which housed 168 inmates. He began his employment with the Monroe County Sheriff‘s Office in 1972, first as a Dispatcher, then as a Deputy and Lieutenant, before running for election for Sheriff.

Upon his retirement from the Sheriff’s Office in 2018, he was appointed United States Marshal for the Middle District of Georgia, which encompasses 70 of Georgia’s 159 counties, and covers 25,471 square miles. He served in this position until his retirement from law enforcement in June of 2022.

Bittick served as president of the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) in 2001, as president of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association (GSA) in 1993, and as Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes president from 1994-95.  In 1993 Bittick was named the Georgia Sheriff of the Year. He also received the National Sheriffs’ Association Ferris E. Lucas Sheriff of the Year Award in 2008.

Bittick was the chair of the National Sheriffs’ Association Congressional Affairs Committee as well as the chair of the NSA’s Intelligence Sub-committee. He served on the Training and Standards Committee for the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association and on many other committees with GSA as well as NSA. Locally, he chaired the Monroe County Child Fatality Review Committee and the Monroe County Child Abuse Protocol Committee. Bittick served as a commissioner on the Commission for Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) for nine years and was a member and chair for CALEA’s Standards Review and Interpretation Committee for several of those years.

Bittick is a graduate of the 130th session of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy (FBINA) and is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Program (LEEDS). He is a 1984 graduate of Mercer University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and is a 2007 graduate of the Executive Leadership Program with the Naval Postgraduate School.

Bittick and his wife Pam have three children and four grandchildren. He has served as a deacon at First Baptist Church in Forsyth and is a Master Mason and a Shriner.