DeKalb County Police Department
| DeKalb County Police Department | |
|---|---|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1915 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | County of DeKalb County, Georgia in the state of Georgia, United States |
| Size | 271 sq mi (700 km2) |
| Population | 739,956 |
| Legal jurisdiction | DeKalb County, Georgia |
| Governing body | county |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Tucker, Georgia. |
| Officers | 789 |
| Agency executive | James W. Conroy, Chief of Police |
| Precincts | North-Central , South, East, Tucker |
| Facilities | |
| Stations | 4 |
| Helicopters | 2 |
| Website | |
| http://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/police-services/welcome | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia. The department serves a population of more than 730,000 people. The chief is James W. Conroy. The agency also serves the City of Tucker, Georgia.
The DeKalb County Police Department was founded on December 18, 1915. On two occasions, in 1923 and 1931, the department was eliminated, as the county commissioners felt that the department was not serving the best interests of the public. In both cases the department was quickly reinstated.
In the early years the department had only a handful of officers. Hiring was sporadic, there was no chief, and officers worked out of the DeKalb County Solicitor's Office.
From the department's inception until the end of prohibition in 1933, a DeKalb County Police officer's primary responsibility was to apprehend bootleggers. Officers Samuel Gentry, Lewell Henderson, Miles Phillips, and Charles Wright were all killed in incidents involving suspected bootleggers. During the remainder of the 1930s,the Department's primary focus was the Enforcement of Traffic regulations and local county ordinances At the beginning of the 1940s, DeKalb had just 20 police officers. In 1947, Under County Commissioner Scott Candler, a program was started to expand and better train and equip the department, starting with the introduction of two-way car radios. The radio system afforded officers greater mobility and increased their effectiveness, before the radio system, officers had to regularly call in from pay phones for instructions. The radios,along with the addition of a new fleet of patrol cars in 1949 allowed officers to quickly respond to calls,that same year DeKalb Police moved into headquarters located in the county complex on Camp drive.in the 1950s the department added more officers, formed Traffic Enforcement, Criminal Investigation,and a Records and Identification section, and responsibilities between the Sheriff and the Police Dept. were more clearly defined. By 1960 the department had grown to over 100 officers, and efforts were made for Dekalb to organize their own Academy.
By 1968, the department had expanded to a force of approximately 200 officers,and added new Specialized Investigation units such as Robbery/Homicide,Juvenile and Narcotics to the Dept. In 1972, the DeKalb Police formed an Aviation unit,and received their first Helicopter,a Hughes model 300C when the Dept. moved into a newly built public safety complex on Camp Circle in Decatur which when constructed had a Helipad installed on the roof. The department would remain at this location for more than thirty years. The location is still the home to several units within the police department.by the mid 70's the Dept, formed a SWAT unit,combined several investigative functions into a Major Felony Unit,and fielded mobile Crime Scene,Accident Reconstruction and Community relations units.massive growth in Dekalb required the ranks to expand to over 500 officers.
...
Wikipedia