Fulton County school leaders have appointed a new chief for the district’s police department.
Melvin G. Dean, a law enforcement veteran with nearly 30 years’ military and law enforcement experience in Fulton County, took his oath of office at a school board meeting this week.
He replaces Felipe Usury, who resigned from the post in September. School officials did not give the reason for Usury’s resignation. Dean is no relation to school board member Gail Dean, who represents areas in Sandy Springs and East Point and all of Hapeville schools.
Usury was chief for over three years and had started working for the school system in 1998. Former Fulton Superintendent Robert Avossa promoted Usury, a 21-year police veteran, to head of the district’s police department.
Usury had been a Fulton school resource officer for 13 years and rose through the ranks to captain. Before coming to Fulton schools, Usury was a Cobb County police officer for eight years.
Dean began his law enforcement career as a commissioned officer assigned to a military police unit in the U.S. Army. Over the past 19 years with the Fulton County Police Department, he has held a variety of field and administrative roles, according to Fulton schools officials.
Dean holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Mississippi and is completing degree requirements this month for a master’s degree in public safety from Columbus State University’s Georgia Law Enforcement Command College.
The role of police officers in schools has been questioned in recent months amid reports of violent confrontations between students and law enforcement. During the last school year, metro Atlanta school districts investigated more than two dozen complaints of excessive force as officers were detaining or arresting a student or intruder. Often, officers are accused of being too rough while handcuffing a student or grabbing a student. In one case, an officer was accused of hitting a student in the mouth.
Created in 1989, Fulton’s school police department is a division of the school system with more than 70 certified police officers and administrative staff, who serve in more than 100 schools and auxiliary buildings.
Depending on school size or population, Fulton middle and high schools have one or two school-based officers. Officers also are on hand to respond to elementary schools in their area.
In addition to meeting the certification standards of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (P.O.S.T.), which is required of all Georgia law enforcement, school police officers have specialized training that helps them build relationships with students, staff and the school community, according to Fulton school officials.
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