APD, City of Albany Commission approves Special Investigations Unit

ALBANY, Ga. – At Tuesday night’s city commission meeting, the City of Albany approved the establishment of a Special Investigations Unit. We met with the Chief of Police to talk about this new unit.

Chief Michael Persley and Ward One Commissioner Jon Howard spoke about the need for this combined unit that’s aimed at combatting drug activity and gang violence.

“…As I’ve said before, this is an opportunity for us to combine our resources, so that we can continue to do the enforcement on those who commit crimes here in Albany=Dougherty county,” said Chief Michael Persley.

As both the Chief of Police and City Commissioner told us, the Special Investigation Unit is about intervention…

Especially with the recent string of violent crimes in Albany.

But, Chief Persley and Commissioner Howard say they need to focus on prevention as well.

“What we did last night is that it would be a concerted effort that the departments would be merged together. And, they would cross train each other, and it would certainly make a difference. But, the key difference in what we have to do with these spikes of crime, we have to encourage parents to know where their children are, at all times…” said Jon Howard, Ward 1 Commissioner, City of Albany.

“…This is strictly the enforcement portion, the intervention and prevention is primarily community based, so there are those current community groups. However, we need more community based initiatives that focus on the intervention and prevention,” said Chief Michael Persley, Albany Police Department.

And, Commissioner Howard tells us that while the special investigation unit will be working on gang activity in the county…

There’s still going to be work done to try and reach the younger crowd to prevent them from going down the wrong path.

“We need to reach the hard coat of these young folks who are out in the streets, doing things that are just not conducive to the environment…” said Jon Howard, Ward 1 Commissioner, City of Albany.

Chief Persley says all that’s left is for the Dougherty County Commission to approve the unit, and they’ll be up and running in early 2024.

The decision was approved unanimously by the city commission.

Brian Roche reporting.

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