Mission
To serve and protect through dedication, active cooperation with the community, and respect for human dignity.
Synopsis

The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department is a multi-faceted law enforcement organization charged with numerous constitutional and legal responsibilities. The department is headed by the Sheriff, an elected constitutional officer. The Sheriff's Department is responsible for the following:

  • Operation of the detention facility, which houses a daily average inmate population of approximately 2,695. The highest inmate count for 2008 was 2,859. The facility is designed to hold 2,744
  • Provide direct and support law enforcement services
  • Transportation of prisoners to and from court, prisons, hospitals, and other jails
  • Service of arrest warrants. By the end of November 2008, the department received more than 23,900 warrants for service. That number is expected to increase 15 percent in 2009
  • Service of Civil papers. In 2008, 85,000 papers were issued for service. In 2009, it is projected the number of civil papers will increase to 97,750. Evictions received for 2008 were 8,580 and the projection for 2009 is 9,870
  • Service of Family Violence orders. In 2008, the Family Violence Unit served 1,491 stalking orders. This unit also served 1,822 civil and probate orders
  • The Sheriff's Department maintains the sex offender registry and monitors all sex offenders who have to register in Gwinnett County. There are currently 330 sex offenders on the register
  • Provides training to a staff of 694 personnel
  • Participation in multi-agency law enforcement task forces to include the U.S. Marshal's Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and Immigration Custom Enforcement or ICE
  • Provide court security to all state and county courts in Gwinnett County
  • Provide security for the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center (GJAC), in which over a million citizens visit each year, and the Juvenile/Recorder's Court building
  • Conducts internal and criminal investigations
  • Coordinates the processing of job applicants
  • Administration and coordination of information technology systems
  • Supports the law enforcement youth explorers program
  • Supports the Sheriff's reserve program
  • K-9 service
  • Operates SWAT to serve high-risk warrants and RRT - a tactical team that is designed to handle uprisings, hostage situations, riots, and severe disciplinary problems with inmates in the jail
  • Records management to include 24/7 operation of GCIC/NCIC networks

Authorized Strength 2009: 688

Operating Budget: 2009 Budget Appropriations
General Fund: $ 67,128,696
Inmate Store: $ 526,586
Special Operations: $228,850
ICE Inmate Housing Reserve: $ 1,350,000
Inmate Medical Reserves: $ 3,000,000


Goals
  • To provide professional, courteous, and efficient law enforcement services to the community
  • Provide for a safe and secure detention facility
  • Effectively serve the public through execution of criminal warrants, family violence and court orders, and civil papers
  • Provide adequate security for the safety of court participants and officials
  • Continue to maintain Georgia Law Enforcement State Certification status that assures a progressive and well managed agency
  • To upgrade training to provide additional and higher quality job specific training for personnel
Major Issues
  • Hiring and retaining the personnel needed to operate the recent jail
  • Expansion, new court facilities, and service of warrants, civil papers, court orders, etc.
  • Service of increasing numbers of warrants, civil papers, etc.
  • Providing for adequate support personnel to facilitate a much larger department
  • Utilization of personnel to maximum efficiency in order to control overtime
  • Implementing the 287(g) program to reduce the number of inmates incarcerated at the Gwinnett County Jail
R.L. (Butch) Conway Sheriff:

R.L. (Butch) Conway

770.822.3140
Butch.Conway@gwinnettcounty.com

Sheriff Butch Conway was elected in 1996 and is currently serving in his fourth term of office. A veteran law enforcement officer with more than 30 years experience, Sheriff Conway has served in almost every capacity of police work.

Since being elected Sheriff, he has seen the department grow from 320 to 712 employees. He reinstated the fugitive unit to Field Operations in 1997 to help catch the most dangerous and elusive criminals and obtained the 287(g) federal immigration program to identify and place detainers on illegal immigrants arrested in the county under the supervision of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Recent projects include an expansion of the county jail approved by voters in 2002, and the start of Operation Second Chance - a program that pulls dogs from the euthanasia line at Gwinnett Animal Control and puts them with an inmate for obedience training. The dogs are then adopted out to loving families. The program is at no cost to the taxpayers with the majority of the costs funded by the Society of Humane Friends. Operation Second Chance gives the inmates and the dogs a second chance at life.

Sheriff Conway began his career in 1973 as an officer with the Gwinnett Police Department where he served for 11 years. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was in charge of the Vice, Intelligence and Narcotics Unit operations before leaving the department to run an office supply business he started in 1981. During his career, he also served as a magistrate judge for seven years and was the Chief of Police for Lawrenceville for six years.

Dedicated to the community, the sheriff currently serves on the Executive Board of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, the Board of Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadership, the Anti-Graffiti Coalition for Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful and the Georgia Sheriff's Association Legislative Committee. He is involved with a number of animal groups including the Society of Humane Friends and the Spay Neuter Act Coalition of Georgia, and is involved in raising money for those groups as well as the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and Special Olympics Georgia.

The sheriff and his wife, Judge Carla Brown, reside in the Harbins community where they own and operate a horse farm focused on the breeding and showing of reining horses. He also has two beautiful daughters and three grandsons.

Management Profiles

Mike Boyd
Chief Deputy
770.822.3105
mike.boyd@gwinnettcounty.com

Chief Boyd is a 25-year veteran of law enforcement, having served in numerous capacities to include dispatch, jail, patrol, investigations, and administration. He served as police chief for 12 years in Suwanee and Moultrie.

Chief Boyd holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in criminal justice from Troy State University. He is a graduate of the 162nd Session of the FBI National Academy. He was selected to be a participant in the 11th delegation of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program during the summer of 2002 spending two weeks in Israel studying terrorism and law enforcement with the Israeli National Police.

He is active in several professional organizations and is currently Chairman of the Georgia State Law Enforcement Certification Program Joint Review Committee. He also is the Law Enforcement Explorer District Post Commissioner and is on the Gwinnett Technical College Criminal Justice Advisory Board. He is a current member and past president of the Gwinnett County Police Chiefs Association.

Chief Boyd has been married to his wife, Debbie, for 24 years, and they have two children.

Lt. Col. Don Pinkard
Commander, Detention Division
770.619.6670
donald.pinkard@gwinnettcounty.com

Major Pinkard joined the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in February 1999 after 18 years with the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department. Major Pinkard began his career in law enforcement as a Deputy Sheriff advancing through the ranks until his appointment as the Jail Division Commander for DeKalb County. He is a P.O.S.T. certified instructor and is certified by the National Institute of Corrections in "How to Manage a Direct Supervision Jail Facility."

Major David Parr
Commander, Civil Division
770.822.8229
david.parr@gwinnettcounty.com

Major David Parr began his career with the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in 1982 when the Department formed an Augmentation Force to increase the number of certified Deputy Sheriffs serving the Department. In the summer of 1985, Major Parr went to work as a full-time employee as a deputy sheriff for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department.

Major Parr holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Georgia State University and is a P.O.S.T. certified instructor. He has taught numerous courses dealing with Court Security and Civil Process and was one of the founding fathers of the Georgia Civil Process Association, Inc. The Association is a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to provide training to law enforcement personnel in Civil Process and Court Security. He also was the secretary of the Association for a number of years.

Major Parr lives in Gwinnett County with his wife, Patricia.

Major Carl White
Commander, Court Security Division
770.822.8208
carl.white@gwinnettcounty.com

Major White joined the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in August 2007. He began his law enforcement career with the Gwinnett County Police Department in 1972 rising through the ranks to become Chief of Police in 1994. He served as Police Chief until 1998 when he left law enforcement to care for his aging parents. He returned to law enforcement with the Gwinnett Sheriff's Department in 2007 and is the current commander of Court Security.

He was named Public Safety Officer of the Year in 1994 by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, Law Enforcement Officer of the Year that same year from the Gwinnett County Bar Association and received the Achievement Award for Police Development from the National Association of County Governments in 1991.

Major Mike Powell
Commander, Field Operations Division
770.619.6801
michael.powell@gwinnettcounty.com

Major Mike Powell began his law enforcement career with the Gwinnett County Police Department in 1973. He resigned in 1997 with more than 24 years of service and spent five years as the President and CEO of a small trucking company. In June of 2002, he was appointed to a Captain's position in the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department by Sheriff Conway. He worked in the Gwinnett County jail as a captain and major before being transferred as the Division Commander of the Field Operations Division in February 2007. He and his wife Diane live in the Lawrenceville area.

Major Frank Woods
Commander, Support Services
frank.woods@gwinnettcounty.com

Major Woods is a 14-year veteran of law enforcement. He began his career with the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in 1994. He has served the department in a variety of capacities. He was a member of the SWAT Team for several years before taking a position as the assistant team commander for the Jail Rapid Response Team. While in the Jail Division, he coordinated the security and logistics for the jail expansion and also served as the Jail Field Training Commander and Transportation Commander. He was promoted to Major in 2009. He is currently the Support Services Division Commander. Support Services is responsible for department training, planning and research, evidence control, Honor Guard, jail field training, the Explorer program, and state certification.  Major Woods serves as the chair person for the department policy committee and awards committee. He is an executive council member for the Special Olympic Torch Run Program, and is a district representative for the Georgia Jail Association. Major Woods is actively involved in all department community service events to include Relay for Life and Society of Humane Friends. He is currently enrolled in Columbus State University Command College.

Captain Greg Thompson
Commander, Professional Standards
770.822.3136
greg.thompson@gwinnettcounty.com

Capt. Thompson began his law enforcement career with the Gwinnett County Police Department in 1977 where he served in a variety of capacities including 15 years as an internal affairs investigator. He also served as an assistant academy director, the bomb squad commander, and member of the bomb squad and SWAT team. Capt. Thompson came to the Sheriff's Department in 1997 at the rank of lieutenant to command the Professional Standards unit. He is a polygraph examiner and was a member of the 1996 Olympic Games bomb squad. Capt. Thompson earned his Bachelor of Science in education from the University of Georgia and holds a master's in public administration.

Sylvia Black
Technical Services Director
770.822.3839
sylvia.black@gwinnettcounty.com

Sylvia began her career with the Sheriff's Department in 1988 as the Jail Commander's administrative assistant. She advanced to Inmate Records Coordinator in 1990 and Technical Specialist in 2001. She was named Technical Services Director in 2004. She is a native of Gwinnett County and a graduate from Central Gwinnett High School. Her education also includes major course work in computer technology. She and her husband have been married for 35 years and have three sons.

Stacey Bourbonnais
Public Information Office
770.822.3924
stacey.bourbonnais@gwinnettcounty.com

Stacey Bourbonnais is a former news reporter who wrote for newspapers for more than 12 years before joining the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department as the public information officer/confidential executive assistant in 2001. Most of her newspaper career was spent covering police and courts in Gwinnett County. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in english from Valdosta State College. Stacey handles a variety of duties for the Sheriff's Department. She is in charge of all media related requests for the department and serves as the department's spokesperson. She also serves as an assistant to Sheriff Butch Conway. She and her husband live in the Dacula area.