After more than 46 years at the Duluth Police Department, Chief Randy Belcher will retire effective July 22. The city recently approved a resolution appointing Deputy Chief, Colonel Jacquelyn Carruth, as his replacement.
Col. Carruth, a 25-year veteran of the department, will be the first female chief in the department’s 100-year history and, according to the city, will be one of only about three percent of police chiefs in the state who are female.
Under Chief Belcher, the DPD rose from just 16 employees in 1984 to a state-accredited agency with a staff of 91 today. Chief Belcher started as a patrol officer in 1976, then became a detective, soon becoming a Sergeant, then Lieutenant, until he finally became the youngest serving police chief in Georgia in 1984.
Chief Belcher was also the department’s first-ever to attend and graduate from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, in 1991.
Among Chief Belcher’s advances, the police department began a camera monitoring program that has now grown to 162 cameras placed in different locations throughout Duluth, including all city parks and throughout the downtown area.
Chief Belcher was also instrumental in the creation of the Citizens on Patrol, VIP Camera Monitoring Program, Coffee and Conversation with a Cop, Citizens Police Academy, Hispanic Citizens Police Academy, and Youth Police Academy programs.
Additional information: www.bit.ly/3KOW7bR.
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