BRASELTON – Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch told members of the South Hall Business Coalition Tuesday morning, “We currently have the best equipment, the best cars, the best training we have ever had since I have been here in this business, thirty-seven years.”
Even at that, Couch suggested, growth as a law enforcement agency is not only measured by improvements in technology and equipment, but by philosophical advances as well. Effective law enforcement must consider the human element of those they serve and protect.
Couch said changing the culture at the sheriff’s office was one of the biggest challenges he faced when taking the helm seven years ago. “We kind of got away from interacting with the public in a more-positive way; it was like an “us versus them” mentality.”
Couch said big steps have been taken in changing that situation.
Another part of the paradigm change Couch has been chasing is a new perspective on the way mental illness and law enforcement interact. “When I first started…we did not address that there was mental health issues…(then) all the state mental health hospitals all closed down and so the new mental health hospital became the county jail.”
“We had to adapt and learn very quickly,” Couch said, “in how to deal with individuals with mental illness.”
“We have officers specially trained in that area, on how to recognize those mental illnesses and then deal with that, short of taking them to jail; there’s other options available out there.”
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office is the eighth largest in the state, with 398 sworn jailers or deputy sheriffs, and as growth has come so has the way the department operates logistically.
“What we were doing with our patrol operations in 2013 was basically working out of our Main Street office, which is no longer there,” Couch said. “We would go out like the spokes of a wheel out into the county.”
Couch said that practice no longer is effective. He said it took him over an hour to drive to the South Hall Precinct from his home in northern Hall County that morning, and that was exactly why things had to change, including the opening of the South Hall facility and another precinct operating out of Clermont.
Technology, Couch said, continues to be where the most noticeable advancements take place. He said a new computer system went into effect in November, 2018, and has linked together every aspect of law enforcement in Hall County, even interfacing with other agencies statewide.
“Each of our patrol cars has computers…and has increased our productivity tenfold.”
Other technological advances brought online recently include Tasers and body cameras for all deputies, including one of his investigators currently training with the United State Secret Service to learn the latest in combating cybercrime.
“It’s something we have to stay on the cutting edge of; it changes daily.”
