New Austell police chief outlines plans for future

Jan. 20—AUSTELL — There's the annual State of the Union address delivered by the president. Georgia governors give State of the State speeches, and in Cobb County, county chairs and mayors have annual speeches focused on their respective jurisdictions.

Thursday night, Austell Police Chief Scott Hamilton, just five months into his tenure, localized the practice even more with a "State of the Police" address.

"I've always preached about being transparent, so this was part of my mission to be transparent and let the citizens know exactly what we're doing," Hamilton told the MDJ.

Before a crowd of about 75 people at Austell First United Methodist Church, the chief presented his vision of the department going forward, and painted a picture of sweeping changes he's already implemented.

Hamilton was hired in August as the city's first Black police chief. A former deputy chief for the Cobb County Police Department, he spent 27 years working for the county, the only department he had ever known.

"The two things police officers hate — change, and the way things are. So my biggest challenge was getting the buy-in," he said, of his first few months on the job.

Hamilton's predecessor was Bob Starrett, who left amid a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe into paperwork discrepancies in the department's K-9 unit.

The investigation was closed last summer, but the GBI this month said the case had been reopened, "based on additional elements of the investigation that needed to be clarified." Hamilton said he didn't know where the investigation stood, other than what had been reported in the news recently.

In his address, Hamilton emphasized modernizing the department's equipment and internal processes, improving community relations and increasing its visibility on the streets of Austell.

"I knew what I was walking into. ... My goal is not to make anyone prior to me look bad, my goal is to make the Austell Police Department the best police department in the state of Georgia," Hamilton said.

'All about respect'

The south Cobb city of Austell is the county's smallest, with just shy of 8,000 residents, per the Census Bureau. Its police force has a budget for just 16 sworn personnel, four of which are vacant, per Hamilton.

Besides filling those positions, Hamilton wants to nearly double the department's size and receive funding for 12-15 more sworn personnel.

"They should've asked for more police a long time ago," Hamilton said.

Echoing the challenges of other Cobb agencies, Austell is struggling to hire people, Hamilton said.

The council OK'd raises for all city employees and hiring bonuses for police in September, aimed at mitigating that problem.

Starrett led the department for more than two decades. Coming in as the new top cop, and the ruffling of feathers that accompanied it, has been Hamilton's greatest challenge.

"It was a hard transition for me and for them," Hamilton told the crowd. "They had had the same regime for ... many years. And then I came in, the new kid on the block. So of course my first thing that I got to do is establish the trust with these men and women, right?"

Hamilton's list of priorities was, and remains, extensive. First was developing a mission statement for the department to provide a sense of direction. He also codified tenets of conduct, borrowed from Cobb police, which were originally created by former Cobb Police Chief Michael Register (Register now heads the GBI).

Those tenets include representing the department and the profession well, on and off duty, and treating people in the community the same way you'd treat a family member.

"It's all about respect. ... I was raised in south Georgia by a grandma and a granddad in Cordele, Georgia ... and they taught me about respect," Hamilton said. "And that's what we're going to do. I don't care if you live in a $5 million home or a two-wheel trailer. You're going to be ma'am, sir, no ma'am, no sir."

Respect, Hamilton added, is a two-way street.

"Just because you got a badge and a gun, don't make you Superman or Superwoman," he said.

The department has created a conduct review board to review citizen complaints. Hamilton emphasized the importance of the internal affairs unit, which "polices the police." And he pledged to always be transparent with the community, while also asking them to understand that sometimes, such as with officer-involved shootings, the GBI and the Cobb District Attorney's Office is enlisted to investigate, leaving his hands tied.

Hamilton said that part of being in law enforcement is living with the fact that if an officer behaves badly, anywhere in the country, it reflects poorly on the profession.

Locally, if officers do something right, or do something wrong unknowingly, Hamilton tells them he's "got (their) back." If they do something wrong, and they knew it was wrong, he tells them, "I'll pray for you."

At the same time, Hamilton said that instilling respect and accountability does not mean the department will stop enforcing the law.

"We're going to be the police," he said, adding that if you're speeding, or transporting drugs, or driving drunk, or being violent, "we're gonna get you."

Ben Williams, president of the Cobb chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said that as far as he knew, Austell police had not held events like Thursday's in the past. He appreciated the proactive engagement with the community, and said it's an improvement.

"The reputation was not the best," he said of Austell police in the past. "Almost neglect, in trying to develop the department."

Williams' favorite moment was when Hamilton said, "success is a journey, not a destination."

"It's very clear to me that there's been a strong investment in putting together a community-oriented culture," Williams said.

Shake-up

Hamilton has also reorganized the department's leadership structure, and brought in new managers. After arriving, he reviewed existing personnel's backgrounds, and found that some people were serving in positions they were unqualified for.

"If you're going to change the culture, if you're gonna be professional, if you're going to do any of this stuff that I just talked about, you got to have the right leadership in place," he said.

The process for hiring, Hamilton said, used to be, "we'd get an application, 'Oh OK, they got a heartbeat, let's hire them.'"

"I'm keeping it real, that's kind of how it was," he added.

Now, the department has made its background checks much more thorough. What used to be a three-page background check is now 28 pages, he said.

As an example, Hamilton said four people had applied in recent weeks, and following the background checks, none of them were hired.

Hamilton said his staff, despite needing more help, told him, "Chief, what we have established here now, we don't want it messed up."

"That means they have bought into what we're trying to do here," he said.

In another shakeup, Hamilton requested, and the City Council granted, that Austell close its jail.

The chief didn't even know such a jail existed, before taking the job.

"I found out we had a jail in the city of Austell. First question that came out of my mouth was 'Why?'" he said.

Hamilton argued that the Cobb County Sheriff's Office is already equipped to house inmates arrested by his department. Plus, the jail put the city at risk of legal liability, and was a drain on resources. Those funds have now been reallocated.

Modernization

Hamilton has already crossed several items off his shopping list. He ordered 26 new police cars, to replace vehicles which were in some cases more than a decade old, with 200,000 or 300,000 miles on them.

He's also purchased new uniforms, new in-car cameras and computers, new body cameras, "rifle plate" body armor, "less lethal" shotguns and naloxone opioid reversal kits.

Hamilton hired Shameta Jones-Harrell to serve as deputy chief. Jones-Harrell said she was surprised to learn of the department's equipment deficiencies — officers couldn't write reports from their cars, and couldn't run out-of-state tags.

"What are you talking about? That's ridiculous," she said, recalling her reaction "... It is already stressful enough and frustrating enough for these guys to go out there and do their job, if they don't have the equipment ... it makes it even more stressful."

In addition to wanting more staff, the chief hopes to build a brand-new headquarters in the coming years.

The old police building on Joe Jerkins Boulevard was built in the 1950s. Former Chief Starrett has sued the city and Mayor Ollie Clemons, alleging he was forced out after reporting "deplorable and unsafe conditions," including black mold, water leaks and rat, snake and insect infestations.

Hamilton said the patrol division has moved into new offices at the Threadmill Complex, but is also using the old building.

"The building is very, very old," Hamilton told the MDJ. "As far as it being a safety risk to my employees, I would never leave them in the building if I thought there was any kind of safety risk to it."

New staff and training

The department's exhaustive presentation included Hamilton's junior staff taking the podium, one by one, to introduce themselves and explain their responsibilities.

Hamilton has hired a civilian community liaison, Nargis Fontaine, to increase citizen engagement.

Lt. Andrew Taylor has been put in charge of the department's new training division. He said that previously, Austell only mandated the 20 hours minimum training required by the state. Going forward, officers will have more than 40, and in some cases 100, training hours.

Another goal of Hamilton's is to get the department certified by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.

The Cobb County, Marietta, Smyrna, Kennesaw, Acworth and Cobb School District police departments are state-certified. The Austell and Powder Springs departments, along with the Cobb sheriff's office, are not.

Hamilton told the MDJ the No. 1 complaint he's heard from residents was that the department was not visible — "they never saw the police." Now, that's changing, he said.

Trudie Causey, a former councilwoman and Austell resident of 35 years, said she "was not real happy," with the department in the past, but was pleased with Hamilton's approach.

Increasing the department's visibility is her main request.

"I'm anxious to see what changes will be made. We live on Marietta Road, and we have already seen changes as far as the patrolling goes there," Causey said.

Gary Pace, a 30-year resident and manager at a crane rental company, said he enjoyed the presentation. Visibility is top of mind for him, too.

"More than anything, like they were talking about, is the presence, just driving through the neighborhood, so they can be seen, and so that they can see people also," Pace said.

Just a few weeks ago, Pace was pleasantly surprised when two officers entered a gas station he was at, and walked around, chatting up customers.

"That makes you feel a lot better, because they are one of us, I guess you could say," he said.

For Causey, Hamilton's overhaul of the department is long overdue.

"Austell's a fantastic town, lot of good people, and I think it's time for a change," she said.