Yr in Review: Lavonia Hires New Police Chief

In our Year in Review, the City of Lavonia welcomed a new Police Chief.

Chief Shane Edmisten was sworn in in late March by Mayor Courtney Umbehant.

Afterward, he thanked the City for the confidence they had placed in him.

In an interview with WLHR News, Edmisten noted the relatively low crime rate in Lavonia which he said he will work to keep that way.

However, he said that doesn’t mean his department can become complacent, especially with the growth headed this way.

“Growth is quickly coming this way both from Atlanta, Braselton, Jefferson, even coming down from Anderson, the growth is coming this way. So, we’ve got to work to maintain the quality of life that we have here,” Edmisten explained. So, I don’t want to get behind the curve. I want to keep the police department properly staffed and able to provide the services that the community expects. We’re looking at what we have, and where we want to go. Of course, budgeting is always a main point that we have to pay attention to and Assistant Chief Daniel Carson and I are working with the City Manager and Mayor on that. We’re looking towards the future. With growth, there are going to be more people. We’ve already got apartments built and I understand that most of those are already full. We’ve got townhomes coming. We’ve got other neighborhoods coming. With that comes increased traffic. So we’ve got some obstacles coming up very soon.”

And along with growth also comes a more diverse population.

One of his goals was to create more diversity in the department and he has hired two more female officers.

“I believe the Police Department should mirror the community. So, as we get more diverse in our population that’s certainly one of the things I’m going to work on is making our police department as diverse as our community. If you have a certain percentage of Hispanics or a certain percentage of African-Americans or a certain percentage of Whites, your police department, ideally, should mirror that. For instance, I have one female officer. You need female officers. So, getting the police department more diverse as we grow is going to be important,” Edmisten said.

He also said he planned to put a lot of emphasis on police-community relations.

“A good investigator, a good police agency has the community involved because 99% of the time I’m going to get the information I need to solve a crime from people in the community,” he said. “So, it’s important for us to be a part of the community. It’s important to us to have relationships with the community. And not only the community but the media. Businesses, for example. A lot of businesses in town have cameras. Well, if you don’t like the police, you’re not going to let the police come in and look at your video surveillance. But if you like the police, you’re going to work with the police. So you’ve got to build those relationships.”

Since that interview, the Lavonia Police Department has held a number of community events including Coffee with a Cop, Cookie with a Cop, Faith and Blue Weekend, and Cornhole with a Cop.

Recently, the Department applied for and received a $250,000 grant for the hiring of two new police officers.