Crime & Safety

Communication, Trust Top Priorities for New South Cobb Police Captain

Capt. Jeff Adcock became commander of South Cobb's Precinct 2 in June. In the last seven months, he has worked diligently to increase communication with the department and the community.

Capt. Jeff Adcock is now a familiar and welcomed face in the South Cobb community after serving for seven months as Precinct 2 captain for the Cobb County Police Department.

Adcock began working as an officer for the department in 1992 and has since established an extensive resume of public safety experience and training. He has served as an officer, a sergeant, a lieutenant, a SWAT sniper and now as the commander for Precinct 2. Additionally, Adcock worked as an adjunct professor at Thomas University for the last three years and at Chattahoochee Technical College for one year.

Increasing communication and trust with the community is the new captain's the top priority, he said.

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“What I learned here is there is a lot of community support for what the police are trying to do…They want me to come out and communicate ways they can help,” Adcock told South Cobb Patch.

At Precinct 2, which serves unincorporated Austell, Mableton and Powder Springs, there are 84 employees, 56 of whom are beat cops.

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As he and his officers become more involved in community efforts, meetings and events, they spread what has become gospel in South Cobb: Call the police any time you witness suspicious activity.

The officers read weekly to children at Bryant Elementary and recently participated in South Cobb High’s Orange Band Day.

With the help of community organizations and leaders, Adcock said the message has been sent out and there has been “quite an upturn in the number of people calling in to report suspicious activity.”

As a result, he said there has been a “huge increase” in arrests for theft-related crimes in the area.

Although Adcock can be seen at nearly every community public meeting or forum in South Cobb, he said his No. 1 priority has not yet been accomplished.

“Honestly, I think we’re just beginning. We’re getting there, but goal 1 hasn’t been achieved yet.”

He plans to meet and work closely with even more community groups in South Cobb and to establish initiatives to better use the precinct’s resources.

He would also like to start an annual Safety Night to “flood the community with officers” and communicate the importance of being vigilant throughout the South Cobb neighborhoods and calling the police when there is activity that seems suspicious.

Creating a safer place for people to live and becoming a trusted and reliable source in the community is important to Adcock and his officers.

Adcock said being a law enforcement officer “is very, very rewarding and exciting.”

“When you get to do something that impacts someone in a personal way, it is extremely rewarding,” Adcock said. “I think it’s a calling.”

One of the most memorable experiences Adcock had while with the Cobb Police Department happened early one morning in the mid-1990s while he served in Smyrna’s Zone 3.

It was about 4 a.m. and Jeff Adcock and other Cobb police officers had been dispatched to an injury crash. A car had overturned into a ditch on South Cobb Drive near Riverview Road.

“I could see a person in the car,” Adcock remembered.

“I could hear someone in the car crying. She was in absolute hysterics. I was worried she was going to panic and die.”

He positioned himself so that he could reach in to soothe the person, a young woman. He could see her body in front of him, but not her face. He finally managed to reach under her and grab her hand. He told her that help was on the way. He told her that she was going to get out of there.

She asked about her sister.

“Where is your sister?” Adcock asked, unaware that more than one person was in the vehicle.

“She’s on top of me,” the woman answered.

Adcock realized that the woman he could see, the one he had his arm under, was dead.

At the moment, Adcock was unfazed by the revelation.

“My focus was completely on the one that was alive.”

Members of the fire department cut the young woman from the car. She was transported to a nearby hospital and survived with minor injuries.

This is just one of the many examples that Adcock, like many other Cobb police officers remembers from his time on the force.

“That’s the kind of stuff that sticks with you,” Adcock said.

Because of his compassion and tenacity, Adcock is invited to community meetings regularly and members of the community feel comfortable calling him directly for answers or help.

For Adcock, that’s what it’s all about.

 “It’s something you commit to doing, that the wives are committed to doing,” Adcock said, adding that his wife of 21 years is just as much a part of his success as his tenacity and passion are.
“I’m pretty passionate about the Cobb County Police Department. I think we hold our people to a very high standard. We are one of the best in the South, if not the nation.”

When it comes down to it, each day on the job is about making a real difference for Adcock and his officers.

“I’d have done this for free,” he said.

 


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