Sgt. Lance Tucker named District 7 Supervisor of the Year
Wrens Police Department’s Sgt. Lance Tucker has been recognized as the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP) District 7 Supervisor of the Year and is a finalist for a state-wide award.
Tucker has been with the city for nearly two years. Police Chief John Maynard said Tucker was hired in August of 2021 as a corporal to oversee the city’s night shift. Tucker’s professionalism and work ethic helped him quickly rise in the department to his current position.
“The goal is to be able to provide the best quality and best level of service we can,” Maynard said. “To have somebody on your staff to be recognized at the state level like this, it shows what the Wrens Police Department is trying to be about. I’m proud of him. I enjoy him being around. This is the kind of level of service I want everyone to be able to provide.”
GACP divides the state into 11 districts. District 7 is comprised of Lincoln, Warren, Glasccock Wilkes, Taliaferro, McDuffie, Columbia, Richmond, Jefferson, Emanuel, Burke, Jenkins and Screven counties.
Maynard said that he is proud to work with Tucker and that his nomination came after the corporal participated in several significant drug seizures and took over management of the department’s National Intigrated Ballistics Information Network responsibilities.
“Each agency has someone who handles every firearm that we take into custody or recover,” Maynard said. “Every firearm is fired twice, the shell casings are sent off and essentially that’s like the fingerprint for that firearm. It’s put in a database to help us track firearm usage. By using this program we’ve been able to link other shootings with certain firearms and that’s something that we would have been unable to do before. Sgt. Tucker spearheaded that and keeps up with all of those.”
Tucker also runs all of the department’s E-Traces through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and runs all of the serial numbers on recovered stolen weapons to help get them back to the rightful owners.
“He has strong leadership abilities and leads by example,” Maynard said. “He is able to pull others up and does not just come in to do his hours and then go home. He should be recognized for both his willingness to the help and to pass information along to other officers and keep them informed.”
Two officers Tucker trained for the Wrens P.D. wrote letters in support of his nomination.
Harris Jenkins, a former Wrens Police Officer and current K-9 handler in Grovetown began serving in law enforcement under Tucker’s supervision.
“He is a wealth of knowledge and is always willing to pass that knowledge down to the next generation of law enforcement. Even though I do not work for the Wrens Police Department, Sgt. Tucker is still one of my go-to contacts if I have a question about a case, a traffic stop, an accident, or just general advice in any situation,” Jenkins wrote.
He went on to praised for checking in on him and both his mental and physical health after the officer witnessed one of the most “difficult, critical incidents” he has ever seen as an officer.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Sgt. Lance Tucker named District 7 Supervisor of the Year
