Gwinnett County has raised eyebrows with its plan to extend full police services into the cities. Now it appears the county might be recruiting city cops.
Three Snellville police officers have been approached by county officers and urged to apply for the Gwinnett police force, Snellville Police Chief Roy Whitehead said.
"[County police] are telling them to hurry up and apply so they can be brought in quickly as they will take over all law enforcement in the county," Whitehead wrote Wednesday in an e-mail obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "They are going on to say that the ones who wait may get lost in the shuffle and will end up without a job."
But at a news conference Thursday, county Commission Chairman Charles Bannister disputed assertions that Gwinnett plans to take over city police departments.
"The county has no authority to do away with the city police forces, so how that got out there ... I can't answer that," he said.
The issue centers around county officials' announcement last week of its plan to revamp emergency services operations to include municipalities. The county's $1.7 billion budget lays the groundwork for an additional 618 public safety workers over the next five years. Of that number, 372 will be police.
District Attorney Danny Porter has said county police have jurisdiction, and that this plan would save the municipalities the expense of staffing a full-service police department. Nine of Gwinnett's 15 cities have their own police forces.
Gwinnett County Police Chief Charles Walters said his department is always looking to recruit officers, but there is no effort on his part to target municipal officers.
Whitehead said there has been a great deal of confusion about the county's action, and he is trying to assure his officers that the county cannot dissolve the city police.
"I don't want to create a conflict between the rank-and-file officers because we have such a great relationship," he said.
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