The authors of a study about forming a dedicated Tucker police department held a public forum about the study on Sept. 9, attended by a crowd that seemed receptive to the concept.
The forum, sponsored by the Tucker Civic Association, featured presentations by
Northlake-Tucker CID Executive Director Matthew Lee, and Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police executives Dwayne Orrick and Ed Densmore.
The $45,000 study, commissioned by the Tucker-Northlake CID in January with funding from groups that included the Tucker Summit CID, Tucker Civic Association, Tucker Business Association, and Tucker Main Street Alliance, “analyzed two years of 911 dispatch data, interviewed business and civic leaders and compared Tucker’s current policing structure with those of neighboring cities,” according to a release from the Tucker-Northlake CID.
At the Sept. 9 meeting , Lee said that of the 67 cities in an 11-county region, 79 percent of them have local police departments, and that the study looked at recently established departments, especially Dunwoody and Brookhaven, when comparing response times to 911 calls.
According to Lee, the time to dispatch after a 911 call in Brookhaven was a little more than a minute. In Dunwoody, it was about one minute and 30 seconds, and for DeKalb, seven minutes and 37 seconds.
Densmore, a former police chief in Alpharetta and Johns Creek, said he felt that the 12-hour shift model would work best for Tucker, as opposed to DeKalb’s 10-hour overlapping shift “to maximize man power and zone integrity.”
The study estimates that a city-run department could be launched for about $10.7 million, which includes salaries, vehicles, technology, and equipment. That number did not include several common elements of other city-run departments like K-9 units, drone equipment, or a real-time crime center.
Tucker property owners in 2024 paid DeKalb County $15.9 million in taxes for police services, compared to Brookhaven’s $15 million and Dunwoody’s $14.3 million. Both cities have larger populations than Tucker.
The study recommends hiring 53 sworn officers and 10 civilian staff in the first year.
Another problem that would be addressed by a dedicated department would be coverage area, the study said. The DeKalb’s Police Tucker Precinct currently serves 40 square miles, which includes areas outside city limits. A Tucker force would exclusively cover the city’s 20 square miles.
Lee said although he believed that DeKalb County Police its doing its best with its available resources, the understaffed department makes it difficult to service many areas of the city in a timely fashion.
“And remember, no man can serve two masters,” Lee said. “Officers are indebted to DeKalb County, not Tucker.”
Most of the questions asked after the presentation were mostly of a procedural nature, including ones about how training, courts, traffic enforcement, and partnership agreements with other jurisdictions would work.
In order for the plan to move forward, the Tucker City Council would have to authorize a referendum for voters to decide whether or not they want a dedicated police department. Then the city would enter into various Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) with DeKalb County and other jurisdictions. The study estimated that establishing the force would take 12 to 18 months.
The full study can be found here.