Frederick D. Snellings Jr., a Fayette County resident, has been appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue as Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety and was unanimously approved by its board on February 14, 2008. The new Deputy Commissioner, who assumed his duties on March 17, is a native of LaGrange, Ga. He served four years in the United States Marine Corps, which included a tour in Vietnam before accepting employment with the Georgia State Patrol (GSP) in 1972. He served over ten years with GSP before leaving the department to accept a position as a Special Agent with the FBI. During his career with the FBI, Snellings served in several field offices in various investigative assignments prior to being promoted to Supervisory Special Agent at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1991. In 1995, he was transferred to Youngstown, Ohio where he assumed the duties as the Supervisory Senior Resident Agent.

In 1999, he was again promoted and reassigned to Georgia as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Office with the responsibility for the entire state of Georgia. In 2002, shortly after 9/11, FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed Snellings as the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, Criminal Division, which is the largest field office in the FBI. He retired from the FBI in 2005. Prior to his most recent appointment, Snellings was the Senior Manager for an international security company. Snellings has a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Morehouse College and a master’s degree in public administration from Brenau University. He and his wife Evelyn have two adult children.