Police chief from eastern European country visits Cobb

March 22, 2010 Police Chief Goga Grigalashvili, of the City of Tbilisi’s uniformed patrol division in the Republic of Georgia, and U.S. State Department official Michael Turner recently spent two days touring the Cobb Police Department and the 911 Operations Center. The Georgian chief is on a nationwide tour of the most well-organized and respected law enforcement agencies in America.

During the visit, Cobb Chief George Hatfield and Deputy Chief Ron Storey hosted as the foreign dignitary toured the museum at police headquarters as well as the 911 Operations center. 911 Director Tony Wheeler also meet with the police chief and 911 Assistant Director Ann Flynn gave a tour of the newly-upgraded 911 facility.

On day two, the Georgian police chief was given a demonstration by the Cobb County SWAT Team and also toured the Cobb Safety Village. One of the more focused tours was of the Emergency Operations Center and Cobb’s Emergency Management Agency. Deputy Director Lanita Lloyd introduced Chief Grigalashvili to the idea of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program, an idea he was strongly interested in bringing to the Republic of Georgia. The U.S. State Department organized the visits for Chief Grigalashvili as the post-Soviet Georgia attempts to reform its police agency and bring new ideas from the west.