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Thursday, April 3, 2008
What’s the 411 on Snellville police news?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Snellville Police Department has been in the news lately — and the subject hasn’t been crime.
Snellville’s mayor announced that the city plans to buy land near city hall for a new police headquarters.
Then the department’s chief, Roy Whitehead, was named Public Safety Officer of the Year for the county. The honor was announced Friday at the Valor Awards, coordinated by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.
You might wonder “Why?” Why does Snellville need a new police headquarters, and why did the city’s police chief merit such an honor?
Here’s some background:
The police department has long operated out of buildings designed for other purposes. The previous police department on U.S. 78 had been a Walton Electric Membership Cooperative building. The current Snellville Police Department on Lenora Church Road was home to a private utilities business.
While the city demonstrated good stewardship in recycling the buildings for its purposes, there are reasons it is now looking to build a new headquarters.
• The department is outgrowing its 12,000-square-foot building. The current building does not provide the interview rooms, record and evidence storage and other specialized spaces the department needs.
• It has no elevator and extra measures are required to accommodate the disabled.
• The existing building is at the southern edge of the city, not centrally located. The new location would provide police better access to major roads.
• Money is available for the land purchase, building design and partial construction from the 2004 Special Local Option Sales Tax. If voters agree in November to continue the sales tax, money from that will be used to cover remaining construction costs.
• The city wants to consolidate its operations in a municipal campus near U.S. 78 and Oak Road, where the new city hall and senior center have been established.
Now, about the police chief:
Whitehead came to Snellville in 2004 from Summerville, S.C., where he served as police chief. He is from Athens (Ga.) and wanted to move closer to family.
After arriving, Whitehead asked his employees what was needed. He quickly added spotlights for patrol cars, allowed officers to be equipped with two sets of handcuffs and latex gloves and emphasized aggressive criminal patrol, in which officers making routine stops look for indicators of more serious criminal activity.
In the last four years, the department has established a canine unit that has helped in drug arrests and tracking offenders (it is adding its third dog soon). It provided a bicycle unit for better patrol of shopping areas and festivals. It added motorcycles that can get to the heart of traffic backups more easily than a patrol car and was the first city department in Gwinnett to institute a commercial vehicle enforcement unit that can address problems with truck traffic through the city.
Less than three months ago, the department became the first city police in Gwinnett to use “electronic warrant interface,” which allows officers to communicate with judges through a computer when a warrant is needed, rather than driving to Lawrenceville for a physical meeting. Since that operation began, 65 trips to Lawrenceville have been saved.
Snellville Police is moving ahead with other technological advances, including a record management system that allows officers to file reports remotely using a laptop. The system makes reports available more quickly and will provide citizens with Internet access to public records.
Under the direction of the city council, the department also established a quality of life unit that addresses code violations in neighborhoods, such as houses not up to standards. That unit - which was initially overwhelmed with complaints - now is averaging 66 cases a month.
During the past four years, the police department has grown from 38 to 50 sworn officers. The number of traffic accidents has dropped significantly. Serious crimes within Snellville city limits dropped from 2005 to 2006. Crime in 2007 was 3 percent higher than the previous year, but arrests kept pace, and Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer said the rise reflected the addition of units and police being more pro-active in addressing crime.
“Actually, we are even safer because we are making more cases,” Oberholtzer said.
The list of achievements continues, but you get the drift.
Whitehead regularly diverts credit to his employees and to Snellville’s city council and mayor.
There is truth in that. Ideas and support from above and below have directly and indirectly led to the improvements.
But the progress reflects departmental leadership.
““He came in and has been very innovative and greatly improved morale,” Oberholtzer said. Whitehead also found grants, community contributions and other alternative funding to pay for many of his improvements, the mayor said.
In a video shown at the awards ceremony, Lt. Tommy Taylor of the Snellville Police Department also mentioned Whitehead’s practice of personally assisting officers on the street.
Whitehead later explained that he answers police calls and provides backup to officers to stay in touch with what an officer encounters.
“I just like to know what our people are facing.”
Mayor Pro Tem Warren Auld said two of Whitehead’s accomplishments — the high quality of the force and public trust in the department — are not easily measured but exist.
“This chief draws around him a group of men and women who are extremely talented and trained.” Auld said. “The caliber of people who want to come and work for this chief is very high. … The way he deals with citizens and the way he deals with police, the chief has created a trust in our police force that is unmatched in Gwinnett.”
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