Top Albany drug cop Berry announces retirement

ALBANY — Major Bill Berry, commander of the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit has announced his retirement from the agency, effective June 26, saying it was “time to make a change.”

“After 40 years in law enforcement, I’m hanging up my six-shooter,” Berry said on Tuesday. “My wife and I are headed back to Macon where we met and where we raised our family.”

According to Berry, he’ll keep a hand in law enforcement, though, including some instructing at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.

Berry, 63, said he’d thought of becoming a firefighter years ago like his father, but decided instead to be “his own man.”

“It occurred to me too, that firefighters have a dangerous job,” Berry said. “They have to run inside burning buildings.”

Considering that Berry’s first assignment in law enforcement, as a young man fresh from the academy, was to purchase illegal drugs in an undercover operation, the comment seems tongue in cheek.

“I graduated on a Friday and on Sunday afternoon I bought about $2,000 worth of heroin,” Berry said. “I had no idea what heroin was or what it looked like.”

Berry served two stints at the ADDU, he said, the first from 1997 until 2005 when he left to serve as coordinator for the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy in Meridian Miss, and then again from 2009 until his final day in June.

Capt. Eddie Jones with the Albany Police Department will act as interim commander until a permanent commander is selected, Berry said.

According to Berry, a final decision for the position will be made by a five-person board consisting of Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul, Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards, City Attorney Nathan Davis, Dougherty County Police Chief Jackie Battle and Albany Police Chief John Proctor or his successor.