DeKalb County police have tapped two women to serve as the department’s first-ever “community service aides” — civilian personnel that will respond to lower priority calls and free up officers to handle more pressing issues.
The women identified as J.A. Barton and S.N. King will start their jobs Monday. Officials said they will don neon uniforms and drive clearly marked vehicles while responding to nonviolent incidents like stolen vehicles, vandalism, shoplifting, property damage and animal complaints.
“The classification was created to allow the department to provide more personalized service to the community while allow police officers to focus on higher priority and emergency calls that require sworn personnel,” officials said in a news release.
The release said police Chief Mirtha Ramos plans to implement similar positions countywide as part of an effort to “find innovative ways to address the concerns of the community.”
Like many other communities across the country, DeKalb has seen a spike in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. The county police department worked a record number of homicides in 2020, breaking the previous mark set just a year earlier.
Ramos has been DeKalb’s chief since late 2019 and has supported more community-oriented policing efforts during her tenure. DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond recently proposed spending more than $11 million on public safety initiatives that include various violence interruption and intervention programs.
That proposal also includes funding for hiring new “mobile crisis nurses” to aid police during mental health calls.
Such plans come amid an ongoing national conversation about rethinking the criminal justice system.
