Dougherty County Police Department continues to make retention a priority

ALBANY — While conducting everyday duties, hiring and retention of personnel remains a priority at the Dougherty County Police Department, Dougherty Police Chief Jackie Battle said in her annual report presented to the Dougherty County Commission recently.

“Even though we faced some unique challenges with personnel shortage and Hurricane Michael, I believe we had a very positive year, and we are looking forward to an even better year during (calendar year) 2019,” a letter from Battle in the report said. “Our primary focus is on quality service delivery to the residents and visitors of unincorporated Dougherty County, and I firmly believe that we have succeeded in this mission.

“In addition to the obvious primary responsibility to provide traditional law enforcement function to the unincorporated portion of Dougherty County, our major service delivery philosophies are quality of life issues and perception of safety.”

The police department is allotted 49 personnel, 42 of which are sworn positions with the remainder being civilian or administrative positions. An additional six sworn personnel are assigned to the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit.

In addition to serving the unincorporated area of Dougherty County, the agency is also responsible for overseeing the Dougherty Animal Control Unit — which is allotted one full-time staff member. The department has two divisions, the Detective and Patrol divisions.

The report said the Detective Division is allotted eight personnel, including a training coordinator and evidence custodian, while the Patrol Division is allotted 38 employees, including clerks and dispatchers. The remaining three personnel are administrative personnel.

During 2018, DCP hired seven personnel for sworn positions and three for civilian positions while losing 13 personnel — nine sworn positions and four civilian positions. At the end of the year, six sworn positions remained vacant.

The department took part in National Neighborhood Night Out, raising funds for the Special Olympics while helping out with Toys for Tots and a blanket drive. Officers also achieved 3,889 hours of in-service, mandated and advanced training during the year.

“Training and education for law enforcement are always of paramount importance,” the report said. “High priority is placed on receiving high-quality training, both in-house and in external schools and seminars. (The) Detective Division continued efforts to obtain as much training as possible to better investigate and clear crimes. The detectives also obtained training specialized in areas they are assigned to investigate, such as child abuse, child molestation and sexual assaults.

“A department training goal is to have all supervisors complete supervisory and manager training. All supervisors have started the process.”

The report said the DCP uses a records management system and computer aided dispatch software for record keeping, evidence tracking and sharing information between agencies. All patrol vehicles have mobile computer terminals and mobile printers. Additional servers have come online to support storage of increased video media from cameras, body cameras and in-car video cameras.

The video system in the department’s interview room was upgraded with the help of grant assistance, the report said.

Going forward this year, the report said, the goal is to reduce last year’s attrition rate of 19 percent to less than 10 percent. The agency is also looking to maintain the status quo of the “take-home plan” with its vehicle fleet, a plan designed to reduce vehicle maintenance costs, extend usable life of vehicles and offer a tangible benefit to officers at minimal additional cost.

Other goals include continued work in identification and development of neighborhood watch areas and generation of a web-based online crime analysis and activity system to allow public access to DCP crime statistics.

The neighborhood watch component is something the agency is already actively involved in.

“We stay in touch with the neighborhood watch groups and try to attend as many neighborhood watch meetings as we can,” Battle told the commission.

Further, DCP officials said they want to continue the training goal this year of 80 hours for each member of the department to include training on current issues, while also continuing community activities and officer-to-citizen contact to maintain good working relationships between the department and the community — and maintaining emphasis and expansion of the “cyber crimes” awareness training program through membership in the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

In 2018, the report said, the department responded to 15,525 calls overall, with a monthly average of 1,294 and a daily average of 42 calls. The highest number of calls came during January, when there were 1,614 calls. There were 2,360 incident reports issued, 327 domestic violence cases, 982 animal control calls, 580 accidents that resulted in three fatalities, four personnel investigations, 36 DUI cases, three forcible rape cases, one homicide, 19 aggravated assault cases, 111 burglaries and 24 motor vehicle thefts.

The department issued 103 felony warrants and 420 misdemeanor warrants. Officers issued 3,522 traffic citations during the year that generated $296,177 in revenue, the report said.

Attrition data from 2014-18 show that a total of 56 of 55 positions were impacted by loss, translating to a 101.8 percent turnover. Law enforcement attrition was 41 out of 47 positions, and civilian attrition was 15 at eight positions.

A total of 280 years of law enforcement experience was lost, averaging almost seven years per officer, the report said.

“We are trying to hire people, but it is hard to turn that number around,” Battle said.

The numbers included four retirements, one death, 11 terminations, 19 resignations for other law enforcement positions and 21 resignations for non-law enforcement positions or unknown reasons, the report said.

Jennifer Parks