Gwinnett County Police Department

Not to be confused with Gotham City Police Department.

Gwinnett County Police Department
Abbreviation	GCPD
Motto	Integrity, Courtesy, Pride and Professional Growth [1]
Agency overview
Employees	1,258 (2024) [2]
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction	Georgia, United States
Legal jurisdiction	Unincorporated areas of Gwinnett County, Georgia, with 6 different precincts. (the urban areas of Auburn, Braselton, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Lilburn, Loganville, Norcross, Snellville and Suwanee having separate police departments) [3]
General nature	Local civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	800 Hi Hope Rd, Lawrenceville, Georgia
Sworn members	936 (2024)
Civilians	322 (2024)
Agency executive	James D. McClure, Chief
Child agency	Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office
Facilities
Holding Facilities	Gwinnett County Jail
Website
Official Website

Gwinnett County police car in 2003

The Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD) is the main law enforcement agency in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The department has about a thousand employees with 936 sworn law enforcement officers as of March 2024. ^[2] The current incumbent Chief of Police is James D. McClure. ^[4]

History

Fallen officers

As of 2024, the department has suffered eight officers and two K9 service dogs killed throughout its history. ^[5]

Fallen officers

Officer	Date of death	Cause of death
Police Officer Howard Eugene Waldrop	Saturday, July 9, 1960	Gunfire
Police Officer Ralph King Davis	Friday, April 17, 1964
Police Officer Jerry Reed Everett
Police Officer Marvin Jesse Gravitt
Assistant Chief of Police Hugh Dorsey Stancil	Saturday, March 23, 1968	Vehicle pursuit
Chief of Police Grady Franklin Dacus
Police Officer James Christopher Magill, Sr.	Sunday, May 23, 1993	Vehicular assault
Police Officer Antwan DeArvis Toney	Saturday, October 20, 2018	Gunfire

Fallen K9s

K9	Date of death	Cause of death
K9 Eli	Thursday, May 23, 2019	Heatstroke
K9 Blue	Thursday, September 10, 2020	Gunfire

Three of the fallen officers were murdered on April 17th, 1964 in a single attack. ^[6] The department had about a dozen officers at the time. ^[6] Three of them were driving home in one car, as they came upon three men who were stripping a stolen car for parts. The bodies of Officers Ralph King Davis, Jerry Reed Everett and Marvin Jesse Gravitt were found bound in their own handcuffs and shot with their own guns. ^[7] The perpetrators, Venson Williams and Alec Evans were sentenced to death for the murders. Both sentences were commuted to life in 1971. Williams was released on parole in 1989. Evans died in prison in 2016, having served fifty years for the murder. The third perpetrator, Wade Truett cooperated with the government in exchange for immunity. ^[6]

In media

In 2019, the department was featured on episodes of the police documentary television series The First 48 . ^[8]

Starting in 2022 a True Crime podcast hosted by Sean Kipe through the Imperative Entertainment podcast network, “In the Land of Lies: The Michael Chapel Story”, focuses on allegations of police corruption within the Gwinnett County Police Department and questioning if the conviction of former GCPD officer Michael Chapel for the murder of Emogene Thompson in 1993 was a set up to frame and falsely convict Chapel while protecting the real murderers. ^[9]

Organization

The department is organized with two bureaus and four divisions: Administrative Services, Support Operations, Criminal Investigations and Uniform Divisions. ^[2]

See also

• List of law enforcement agencies in Georgia

References

1. "Mission, Vision, Values". Gwinnett County. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
2. "Official Web Page". Gwinnett County. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
3. "Precincts". Gwinnett County. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
4. "Organization". Gwinnett County. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
5. "Gwinnett County Police Department, Georgia, Fallen Officers" . Retrieved 3 April 2024.
6. Yeomans, Curt (13 August 2016). "Man involved in gruesome 1964 murder of Gwinnett cops dies in prison". Gwinnett Daily Post. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
7. "Police Officer Ralph King Davis". Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
8. Coyne, Amanda (28 May 2019). "Beyond the bodycam: Gwinnett opens up in TV reality shows". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
9. "In the Land of Lies". www.listennotes.com. 17 October 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2025.