The Rockdale News Rockdale News Digital Edition, June 10, 2015 | Page 4

Breaking
Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Rockdale Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy
to head Athens-Clarke-County Police
BY MICHELLE KIM

Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy
Scott Freeman will be leaving Rockdale to become
the next police chief of the Athens-Clarke County
Police Department starting July 6.
Freeman was appointed to RCSO Chief Deputy
under Sheriff Eric Levett starting 2013. Previously,
he was the Deputy Chief at the Conyers Police
Department, the agency where he began his law
enforcement career 25 years ago.
Sheriff Levett said he will run day-to-day
operations at the RCSO for the time being. “ I’ll
seek a chief deputy at some point,” he said.
Freeman was the top choice out of 64 applicants,
accourding to the Athens Banner-Herald.
The Athens Clarke County Police Department is
the eighth largest Police Department and is made
up of 240 sworn officers and 65 civilian employees.
The position of Chief of Police for Athens Clarke
County Police Department recently became
available after Chief Lumpkin retired after serving
17 years.
“I’m extremely proud of him,” said Sheriff Levett.
“I hate to see him go... At the same time, it’s a goal
he’s accomplishing and I support it.”
Freeman’s passion for law enforcement began
at Rockdale County High School, where he
participated in the Explorer program designed to
give young adults interested in law enforcement
careers the opportunity to learn about the job.
After graduating in 1990, Freeman worked as a
dispatcher at the Conyers Police Department for
a year before attending the police academy and
becoming an officer. He became a Major in the CPD
and has earned both a master’s degree and a Ph.D.

in public policy from Walden University, and also
graduated the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
Academy in Quanitco, Va. in 2012.
As teenagers in the Explorer program together,
Sheriff Levett and Chief Freeman set a goal that
they both would one day become a Chief or Sheriff.
Both agreed whoever obtained their goal first
would hire the other as their second in command.
Shortly after Sheriff Levett was voted Sheriff of
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