Opinion: Peachtree Corners Council is considering hiring a city marshal

By Alex Wright, city councilman

Since its incorporation in 2012, the City of Peachtree Corners has provided police services to its citizens through an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Gwinnett County.  The city and its citizens have mostly been pleased with the level of service provided by the Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD), but a level of change may be on the horizon for community safety in Peachtree Corners.

The Peachtree Corners City Council will soon be considering a proposal that would create a new department that will provide the city resources that it directly controls that can fill in some gaps that currently exist between what GCPD is doing and what the city would like done.
What is being proposed is known as a City Marshal.  Several other cities in Gwinnett that do not have their own police force have City Marshals: Sugar Hill, Buford and Berkeley Lake.

Many citizens have asked what exactly is a City Marshal?  In the context of what Peachtree Corners wants, it would be someone who is Peace Officers Standard and Training (POST) qualified. This basically means they’ve been to the police academy. They have the same powers as a police officer but would be tasked with a much narrower scope of responsibility.  In what is being considered in Peachtree Corners, they would focus mostly on code enforcement issues and providing presence patrols.

Here are a two examples of situations that have created the need for this program;

• The legal department at Gwinnett County has instructed the GCPD to NOT enforce city specific ordinances.  One example of where this was a problem was a very large and loud party in a neighborhood.  A resident called the police.  The police showed up but since the ordinance they were violating was a city-specific noise ordinance, the county police had been instructed to not intervene.  So, the party proceeded.  A City Marshal in this instance would be empowered to enforce this ordinance AND if necessary, issue orders to cease with the same powers as a police officer, including, if necessary, arrest abilities.  A code officer cannot do that.
• Peachtree Corners has had multiple issues at the Town Center of unruly behavior, in some instances by large groups of teenagers. In spite of hiring an off-duty police officer, we continue to have problems.  The Council is concerned about eventually something bad happening at the Town Center. The Council feels having resources that can be directed to focus on areas the Council deems important could help greatly in deterring undesirable behavior.

Please understand: in my opinion the Council is not interested in creating a police force at this time.  We have a very good relationship with GCPD.  Like departments across the country, GCPD faces staffing challenges and is not operating at its full authorized manpower levels).

When CGPD is fully resourced and are not handcuffed by bureaucratic decisions by the county legal department, they do an outstanding job.  However, the GCPD is currently under-resourced, and the council believes a city marshal is a means to help fill that gap instead of just sitting back putting up our hands and saying there is nothing we can do.  

Look to hear more about a city marshal in coming weeks from the city council of Peachtree Corners.

This material is presented with permission from Elliott Brack’s GwinnettForum, an online site published Tuesdays and Fridays. To become better informed about Gwinnett, subscribe (at no cost) at GwinnettForum