Gwinnett PD opens its doors to GPC

Criminal Justice students tour Gwinnett Police Department

by Jennifer Johnson
The Collegian
Issue date: 10/1/07

Nearly 30 GPC students learned what it might be like to work in law enforcement when they toured the Gwinnett County Police Department on September 27. Criminal Justice majors in John Siler's courses, as well as Dr. Kim Krinsky's online criminology class and members of her psychology class constituted the group that spent several hours being lead through GCPD facilities by Major Bart Hulsey, a veteran of the force who spent 17 years in SWAT-and is also a GPC student.

Students walked by pieces of the police department's history displayed in frames and shadow-boxes along many of its grey walls. Quick inspections of different uniforms, badges, weapons, pictures of past police chiefs, once-occupied buildings and vehicles peppered the tour that took students past the evidence room, the detective's offices, the uniform division, and to the crime labs and impound lot.

In the hallway, the group met the Commander of Professional Standards Lt. P. T. Cronin, who urged students to fill out an online application early and go through the process that takes three to four months. The GCPD will hire before the academy begins and help with physical training to prepare future officers for time at the academy and the $25 million new training center that Hulsey called "second to none in the southeast." Cronin urged students to apply soon, noting that because the county provided tuition reimbursement, students could begin while still perusing their degrees (Cronin, like Hulsey, is back in school at Troy University).

An early stop in the tour was to the Communications center, where all the 911 calls in the county are received. In shifts, the group was lead in by Communications manager Angie Connelly. Students observed operators sitting before two computer screens, one which receives the call, the other which routes the information to appropriate departments-law enforcement, fire department and EMS-based on the type of call and its originating address.

While students waited in the hall, Hulsey took questions and shared his insight as a SWAT officer with Krinsky and her psychology students about the necessity of having a psychologist assigned to the team because of the high number of people SWAT encounters 'who have mental problems.'
Once regrouped, students were escorted to the Crime Scene Unit where they were again divided to be walked through the department. CSU officer Cendi Nicholson took one group through the offices and into the color lab, where all the film from crime scenes is processed in-house by CSU techs to ensure confidentiality and security. Nicholson pointed out that everyone in her department is cross-trained in equipment, processing and documenting evidence, going to court and testifying.

After a quick walk-through of the interior of the department-which included an introduction to a Crime scene technician busy fingerprinting a tire-iron, Nicholson took the group outside to the crime scene mobile unit and vehicle bays. Later students were escorted through detectives' offices and the electronic crime unit, complete with their own computer crime lab. Even though the labs are expensive to maintain and keep up to date,

"Everybody keeps their records on computers now," said Hulsey.

Rashied Hooker, double major in Criminal Justice and Business Management, is taking several of Siler's courses this semester and thought that the tour of the GCPD was "very informative and gave me a lot to think about... and cleaned up some stereotypes brought up by TV."

After the tour of the department, students got in their vehicles and traveled across Highway 316 to the air field where, in a massive aviation hanger owned by the police department, they saw firsthand state of the art equipment such as a full-body bomb suit, an electronic robot for bomb disarmament, two helicopters, an RV converted into a backup 911 center with funds from a Homeland Security grant and a DUI task force vehicle which is used for road checks and sobriety tests.

SWAT and EOD Commander Lt. Kevin Moran spoke with students about the roles that his team assumes in conflict situations. Before students investigated the hanger, Corporal Willie Bailey spoke briefly about the recruitment efforts at Gwinnett County and suggested anyone interested in a career in law enforcement go to www.gwinnettpolicejobs.com for information on applying for a position.
"I thought it was amazing," said Vincent Bullock, 21, a Criminal Justice major with his eye on the law program at GSU. "Any question I asked was answered directly."

Students were encouraged to ask questions throughout the tour, whether equipment-specific queries or questions about an officer's experience on the force.

To wrap up the tour of the GCPD facilities, the students were taken to the police academy where recruits are, according to Hulsey, issued the finest fire-arms training in the state of Georgia. Special attention was paid to the two indoor ranges and a computerized driving simulation that uses a full dashboard set up of a squad car, with three monitors serving as a windshield, Bullock recalled. Recruits learn to safely negotiate their vehicles at all hours and in different weather conditions with the vehicle responding in kind; if it was raining in the simulation, the vehicle would hydroplane, and if it was icy, it would slide.

By the tour's end at about 2:30 p.m., students interested in the field of criminal justice had spoken to veterans of several departments, had seen the latest equipment, vehicles and facilities, and created images that they will carry with them into their careers.