Baldwin Police Chief Jeff Branyon didn’t plan on ending up in Baldwin after twenty-five years of law enforcement, but as a lover of small-town policing and a man passionate about helping communities, he’s excited about the city’s future.
Branyon has known Baldwin Mayor Joe Elam for some time through bicycling. When Elam had questions about Baldwin’s Police Department, he’d run them by Branyon, and it wasn’t long ago that Elam suggested Branyon apply for the job as Baldwin’s Police Cheif.
“All the pieces fell into place. I never had thought about, ‘Oh, I want to land in Baldwin one day,’ that wasn’t on my radar,” Branyon said. “I think it’s just kind of a God thing. I ran into Joe at the right time. I was at a place in my career where I was kind of looking to make a move, and it worked out really well.”
With his new job as chief and a list of goals, Branyon is ready to make the Baldwin Police Department the best it can be.
An impressive resume
Since April 2020, Baldwin has seen five different police chiefs, three of which resigned, the one served as interim chief, and one served as interim chief twice before resigning. Former Baldwin Police Chief William Anastasio only served as the department’s chief for five weeks before he resigned, citing what he called the department’s “deeply rooted negative culture.”
Since September of last year, allegations have been raised against the department regarding actions of officers no longer employed by the department, such as excessive force and violations.
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The city needed someone to step up to the plate and lead the department— and Branyon is just the man for the job. Of his more than 25 years in law enforcement, he spent 13 at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, 11 as a crime scene manager for the Gwinnett County Police and 3 years as the marshal for the City of Dahlonega.
Over the years, he’s learned a thing or two.
“My philosophies on policing are pretty straightforward. We’re here to serve the public,” Branyon says. “I mean, that’s why we exist. [..] I lean really heavily on the servant leader model— I think that’s where we are. I think we serve the public.”
He says that serving the public comes in many different forms, but he says at the end of the day, the police are “here to be problem solvers.” He says the goal of his officers isn’t to write a ticket or make an arrest, it’s to address the issue.
“If we could address that problem and not arrest somebody and not write a ticket, that’s usually the best resolution,” he says. “Sometimes that’s not an option, but my position is that we want to go out there and we want to treat everybody with respect.”
Building relationships
Cheif Branyon says Baldwin’s police aren’t just here to enforce laws, they’re here to help their community. Whether it’s a flat tire someone needs help changing, or opening the car door for a child being dropped off at school, Branyon says helping citizens and building relationships with them is an important goal for the department.
“I tell my officers, ‘I want you to patrol and I want your windows rolled down when you’re in the neighborhoods, I want you talking to the people that are cutting grass and shooting baskets and walking their dogs,’ you know, building relationships,” he says. “Because that’s what makes policing work. If the public doesn’t trust us, we’re not effective. So we’ve got to build that trust in the public. That’s what we’re here to do.”
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He says transparency is a big part of that trust, which is part of the reason he has put so much time and effort into upgrading technology and department equipment, like better quality bodycams and re-lettering police cars to make them more visible.
Branyon is also making sure his staff receives training to deescalate and problem-solve when they respond to calls. All of Baldwin’s police officers have received training for deescalating situations with mental health issues involved, called Crisis Intervention Training. Every patrol car now has, and officers are now trained to administer, Narcan to prevent an opioid overdose. The department is in the process of a training program that focuses on working with people on the Autism spectrum.
“As long as I’m the chief, I’m always going to be looking for what’s next, what’s better, how do we do our job better? The citizens deserve [that],” he says. “They put us here, they pay our salaries, they want quality services. And that’s my job, to be looking at how can we [can] do better, how we can constantly be improving and serving the public.”
This article has been updated.
