New East Precinct Commander Wants to Make Sure You Feel Safe

The  has a new commander. Major Dennis Spradley recently transferred from the West Precinct where he served precinct major for the past 29 months. Spradley will assume the command held by , who will now head GCPD's Special Operations division.

Spradley, a Dacula resident, comes to the job with experience, comforting goals for our community and a willingness to partner with citizens to make our area a safer place to live.

“This is a different area from the west, but my goals are going to be the same,” Spradley said. “We want to make sure we deliver the best police service we can for the people who live here. Basically if we have any problems, we want to make sure we resolve them as soon as we can.”

Spradley has been in law enforcement for 32 years, and has worked in Gwinnett County for the last 24 years. His new role is to administer the precinct for the district. His day-to-day life involves trying to resolve issues and put out fires as they arise.

“We have between 50 and 65 officers that work in this area,” Spradley explained. “I make sure that they have everything they need to do their daily job effectively and efficiently. Each precinct is like a little city in itself where the major runs that unit, and resolves any issues that we have here.”

Spradley was promoted to major in September 2009 by GCPD Chief Charles Walters. He went out to the West Precinct because someone else had moved. When the East Precinct spot became vacant, he decided to move here.

“I like this area,” he said. “I work in this area, I live in this area and I spend my money in this area. I prefer to do business in Gwinnett and Dacula. I have lived here in Dacula for 10 years now and it is a good area and a great community to be in. Our goals are to make sure we deliver the best service we can to the citizens that live out here, and make sure they feel safe.”

Major Spradley is dedicated to making the citizens of Dacula feel safe, and he focuses heavily on the two major challenges in our area: property crimes and burglary.

“We have property crimes that are hard to resolve,” he explains. “Like people leaving their vehicles unlocked and in the middle of the night someone goes into their vehicle and steals their property. We also have daytime burglaries that are a big challenge. Those are the two primary areas that we focus on, and are trying to resolve. Our goals are to try to reduce those crimes in this district.”

The East Precinct is very large, so keeping our area safe and deterring these crimes is a huge undertaking.

“This is a large area that we patrol out here,” Spradley said. “It goes all the way from Loganville to the Buford area, and borders Lawrenceville, Walton and Barrow counties. We have a very large district, and with the available resources we try to make sure we are seen and are very visible. We patrol every community we can.”

Because the East Precinct covers such a large area, Major Spradley greatly encourages an interactive relationship with the people living here.

“We want to make sure the citizens feel safe,” he said. “These property crimes occur, and we can’t always be everywhere, so we also have to rely on the citizens to give us a call when they see things happening in their neighborhood.”

Major Spradley and the police that patrol our area need our help, and that is why he encourages neighborhood watch programs. 

“We have 46 cops communities in the East Precinct, which is second to the number in the South Precinct,” he said. “That is a lot of cops communities, and a lot of eyes and ears out there that can report things to us. We enjoy a very interactive relationship with the community. When you see something that you think is out of the ordinary or suspicious, we want to know about it.”

The City of Dacula falls within the East Precinct, and Major Spradley says that he is looking forward to working with our community.

“We look forward to a good working relationship with the City of Dacula,” he said, “interacting with the mayor and the city council, and responding to anything we can to make sure that we deter crime in the area.”