RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday that he has chosen Erik Hooks as his public safety secretary.
Hooks, a Spring Lake native, is a State Bureau of Investigation veteran.
“Erik Hooks has worked every kind of crime from drug trafficking to public corruption and homeland security critical issues, and he has my confidence as a proven investigator and supervisor,” Cooper, North Carolina’s new Democratic governor, said.
Hooks started with the SBI as a special agent in the state’s northeastern counties in 1989. By 2014, Hooks had become the SBI’s assistant director over the Professional Standards Division. Most recently, he oversaw the Threat Assessment and State Asset Investigations Unit and the Inspections and Compliance Unit.
Hooks holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in criminal justice and a master’s degree in organizational management and research from N.C. State University.
The Department of Public Safety directs statewide law enforcement, emergency management, juvenile justice, and the correction system.