Sandy Springs Police

We're offering more FREE training workshops through our police partnerships! We'll be with #cityofdecaturpd on 11/9 and Sandy Springs Police on 11/16. These trainings are generously funded by #thesandyspringssociety and the #decaturrotaryclub Advance registration is required, https://buff.ly/3NP3Drv #selfdefenseforkids #safetytraining #freefriday #revvedupkids

Unlock your potential at the Sandy Springs Connects! Career Expo on Thursday, September 12 in Studio Theater at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., network with companies offering competitive salaries, great benefits, and opportunities for growth. For more details, visit SandySpringsConnects.com. See you there!

Earlier this year, I stepped down from my day-to-day commitments at the company I co-founded, AgileSherpas, in order to spend some well-earned QT with family and friends as well as to pursue several personal interests. One of those interests was learning more about those who bravely protect and serve the City of Sandy Springs, an Atlanta suburb of ~110,000 full-time residents that my family and I proudly call home. To this end, I applied – and was accepted – to attend the Sandy Springs Police Department's (SSPD) Citizens Police Academy (CPA), a nine week course that gives regular taxpaying citizens the opportunity to get to better understand the training and resources, as well as offer insights and familiarity, amongst those behind the badges. (Imagine a “behind the scenes” or “full access” window into your local police department, and that’s essentially the CPA.) For several hours on Tuesday evenings, my fellow participants and I learned firsthand about how SSPD is organized, how they recruit and train their personnel, how evidence is collected and analyzed, how crime scenes are investigated, and how criminal intelligence actually works (spoiler alert: there are no Minority Report-eske “precogs”). Outside the classroom, we toured our area’s 911 call center, participated in "ride-alongs" during various shifts, met with narcotics and K-9 personnel (both two- and four-legged), ran simulations in SSPD’s street crimes training center, and worked with the highly trained specialists and equipment that our North Fulton Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team deploys to meet our area’s most urgent safety and tactical needs. It was an experience I’ll never forget, and it helped to increase my awareness of how to keep my family and broader community both safer and more prosperous. Interacting with those who proudly wear the SSPD badge also reminded me how far we’ve come since the “defund the police” movements just four short years ago. This being said, ANY number of senseless and horrendous acts of police brutality or prejudice will continue to have broad negative repercussions, not only within the hearts and minds of citizens but also across police personnel and departments (99.9% of whom are as disgusted and frustrated with these acts as we citizens are, if not more so, as it makes going about their daily jobs of serving and protecting that much more difficult and dangerous). Sharing this here on LinkedIn in hopes that others, who are able to do so, also take some time away from their professional or personal lives in order to pursue their own passions, especially those that help strengthen their communities.