Police Department Welcomes Major

’s newest employee, Maj. John Robison, got somewhat of a relatively late start in law enforcement.

It was always his intention, though, to get involved with police work. Following graduating from Georgia State with a bachelor’s in criminal justice, he began in student ministry at his church in Lithia Springs, .

“I’ll give you the short version of a long story: I ended up volunteering and becoming a part-time and then full-time staff member with my church,” said the 40-year-old alum. “After about nine or 10 years of that, I went back to what I originally wanted to do … pursue my law enforcement career." 

Being involved with church ministry gave Robison a perspective that he said helps with being a police officer.

“I’ve found that working on staff at a church, you learn to deal with people who are going through crises,” he said. “And I got trained in counseling, so I found that to be very beneficial” for police work.

About 10 years ago, Robison began with the Alpharetta Police Department as a patrol officer. There, he worked his way up to lieutenant and investigations. He was also involved with the FBI’s Safe Child Task Force.

“We worked undercover with pedophiles who were trying to meet up with kids—Internet crimes against children basically.”

The lieutenant said he was “very happy” in Alpharetta and had no plans of leaving. He and his wife recently moved from Douglas County back to West Cobb, where they had previously lived for seven years.

The couple had just put an offer on a house when Powder Springs posted the open major positions.

“My goal, I would like to be a chief somewhere, so you have to work your way up,” he said. “And I started reading about Chief (Charlie) Sewell and his vision for the department and the city. … I was very intrigued by that.”

Sewell said the department is “real excited” with Robison joining the force. Robison, who started Sept. 30, from more than 40 internal and external applicants for one of the two open major positions.

“He had to hit the ground running,” Sewell said. “We have a lot of work for him to do.”

Powder Springs police Maj. Matt Boyd, a 12-year veteran of the force, was promoted from lieutenant for the other major position. Sewell converted the open deputy police chief position to a major, and the other became open when .

Boyd will oversee support services, while Robison will be over operations, including the patrol division.

Robison noted how he is starting during a time of transition for Powder Springs police, with and Sewell .

“I’m the outside guy coming in, but so is the chief. He’s the new guy, too,” he said. “It is a little strange, but it’s a good strange and it’s exciting.”

Robison said he has a mutual focus with Sewell on getting the department certified by the state, which requires 129 standards of liability to be met to help protect a department’s employees. He added that the two share a passion for “community policing.”

“The police department is often the face of the government. We’re the government that people see first oftentimes,” he said. “I’m very big on professionalism, and getting out and integrating our department as much as we can in the community—not just in enforcing the law, but also to be a friend to the community.”