With 2024 coming to a close, AccessWDUN is talking to local officials to identify key trends heading into the new year.
For law enforcement, continued residential growth in the Northeast Georgia area continues to impact how authorities operate day-to-day. Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch, who was re-elected to a fourth term in November, said the growth requires more resources for law enforcement to serve the community.
"As the population increases, typically, that brings about a need for expanded resources and new strategies," Couch said. "It creates a lot of interesting challenges, staffing challenges, increased jail population...We've got to stay on top of that, and I think (Hall) County is doing a great job of looking toward the future. We have a lot of meetings about that very thing."
In the city of Flowery Branch, Police Chief Chris Hulsey commended city officials for investigating in the police department he's worked in for over a decade to make sure their staffing keeps pace with the residential growth in the community.
"In 2006, when I first started, we only had eight officers. As of today, we have 29, so we have, with the help of the (city) council, tried to really stay on top of the idea that more people are moving in," Hulsey said. "In 2022, the council had approved five additional officers, and what we've done is we just split all those officers to be on the road. We went from having only two officers on the road 24/7 to we now have three on the road at any given time."
As far as crime trends, both Couch and Hulsey pointed to driving under the influence cases as one of the key issues in the area.
"After December, we're probably going to be looking at about 100 DUI arrests for just this year (in Flowery Branch)," Hulsey said. "Last year, there were 94, the year before that was 22, so that number has went up significantly."
Overall, Couch said crime statistics in Hall County have trended down by about 6% from 2023 to 2024. However, he noted the decreases have largely come from declines in property crimes in the county, while violent crimes did tick up slightly.
"The most violent being murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault...In 2023, we had 297 cases reported and then in 2024 we were up to 303," Couch said.
Couch, however, said those numbers are lower than when he first took office in 2012.
"Our population during that same time period has increased by over 20%, so we're staying ahead of the game with those numbers."
While Couch was re-elected in November, several area sheriffs are retiring at the end of 2024. One of those is Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum, who first announced her plans to retire in late 2023 after 35 years with the officer and the last 12 as sheriff.
She will be replaced by Kevin McCook, who won the election for the post in November.
As Mangum heads out of officer, she said she believes drug use will continue to be the number one issue for law enforcement in the foreseeable future.
"I've always said that one of the major core issues of our crime is drugs...it's been worse with open borders and the fentanyl," Mangum said. "We've had a lot of overdose deaths and then during the holiday season, now your thefts and burglaries pick back up and you're having to deal with that."
Mangum and Couch also both pointed to scams as being an ongoing battle that law enforcement has to face.
"They call and say they're part of the sheriff's office and they want money for this or because you missed jury duty," Couch said. "Rest assured, the sheriff's office, we don't ask for money."
"I'll tell you why it's happening, because people get intimidated and scared when these people call," Mangum said. "They don't call us until after the fact when they've sent the money...I've heard every scam in the book, it seems like. If they're going to tell you you're going to get locked up for not being in jury duty, tell them to bring it on...If we have a bench warrant for some criminal charges then we're going to come lock you up. We're not going to call you and say we're going to lock you up."
2024 saw the first mass school shooting in the history of the Northeast Georgia region at Barrow County's Apalachee High School in September. The attack left four people dead, two of them being students and two teachers.
Mangum's office was one of several surrounding law enforcement agencies that responded to render aid to the Barrow County Sheriff's Office in the aftermath of the shooting. Mangum said she believes students or individuals who make verbal or written threats toward schools should face stiffer penalties from state laws.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office investigated the alleged shooter, Colt Gray, then age 13, in May of 2023. The investigation was into alleged threats the boy had made on a social media platform saying he would "shoot up" a school.
The investigation ultimately did not find sufficient evidence to charge Gray. The shooting occurred in the neighboring Barrow County, where Colt and his father moved, 16 months later.
Mangum, however, pointed out that even if Gray had been charged at the time, it may not have kept him from roaming the halls of Apalachee High School in September 2024.
"With the juvenile law, to go be detained at the youth detention center, they have to score 12 points. They're on a scoring system," Mangum said. "A terroristic threats charge is an eight-point charge, so even if we could have charged the boy the year before, he wouldn't have been detained at a YDC. In my opinion, as the sheriff and an individual citizen, I think if any student threatens a school, a teacher or another student, it should be automatic detention to have to go before the judge."
Couch said the Hall County Sheriff's Office has continued to work with the Hall County School District to try to keep school security tight.
"We've had a lot of active shooter training, we've had a lot of training with the school system itself and the staff there," Couch said. "We've now included some roaming school resource officers that travel between the schools nad cover the elementary schools as well. We have the school safety deputies that we just put into place this year...We're looking at all the ways to improve school safety and we're looking at several devices as we go into this next year on how to enhance that."
