The Flowery Branch City Council voted unanimously Thursday night in favor of a proposed agreement between the police department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The city council approved a task force position within the city’s police department in July 2022. After consideration, Police Chief Christopher Hulsey decided to use the position to bridge an agreement with the DEA. The chosen officer will remain an employee of Flowery Branch, receiving all training a traditional city police officer would, along with the specialized training required by the DEA Task Force team.
“July the first 2022, City Council approved for us to assign a officer to the DEA Task Force,” Hulsey said. “With doing so, they provide an agreement that the City of Flowery Branch and the DEA has to agree on, as far as dealing with the pay or the benefits or whatever. So that's what that agreement was.”
The agreement cites the high frequency of illicit drug traffic in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area as motivation to form the partnership. Part of the agreement is to gather and report data in regard to the trafficking of narcotics in Flowery Branch. Alongside that collection, the contract permits undercover operations where appropriate.
“The main benefit for that I see is the fact that we will have this task force that can help us here in the City of Flowery Branch,” Hulsey said. “There's two different divisions with the DEA Task Force. And so it's like we're adopting six or seven additional officers to help if there's an incident happens here in Flowery Branch.”
Chief Hulsey said while they’ve had somewhat similar positions in the past, this is the first time they will have a DEA Task Force Position in the department, which opens up many new opportunities.
“This is huge, I'm really excited,” Hulsey said. “We have had an officer that was attached to Homeland Security years ago. But it's been a while since Flowery Branch has been a part of this. We're really excited about that.”
One of the boons in hosting a relationship between the DEA and the city police department is the sharing of asset forfeitures all throughout the region.
“So if the task force has a case, just say drugs, and there was money that was seized, we would get a certain percentage of that asset,” Hulsey said.”
Hulsey said the department has picked the officer that will join the DEA Task Force but is not ready to disclose their name at this time.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/1/1162165/flowery-branch-approves-agreement-between-police-department-dea