West Point Chief talks department overcoming challenges

WEST POINT — Kevin Carter was the guest speaker at last Thursday’s meeting of the West Point Rotary Club and talked about the challenges the department has gone through over the past couple of years. Carter has been the city’s police chief for approximately one year and has been with the WPPD since 2011. He began his law enforcement career in LaGrange in 2006.

West Point has been short of a fully staffed police department since 2022, but Chief Carter is hopeful that’s about to turn around. The department will be sending four new officers to the Georgia Police Academy and is in the process of hiring another officer. It’s possible the department could be back up to a full staff in the relatively near future. “We have two investigators now,” Carter said. “We have created those positions from within.”

It’s a much better situation now than it was a couple of years ago. At one point the department was short some 11 positions after several experienced officers, including Chief Donald Britt, resigned to take positions elsewhere. This made the remaining officers take on heavier workloads.

“It happened very, very fast,” he said, “but we are in a much better situation now. It is so important to hire the right people, and we are focused on that. I don’t regret what we have been through. I am happy to be here and have no plans of going anywhere else. I know we can have a department here in West Point everyone can be proud of. We strive to be the best department we can be.”

Carter said that Lt. Brice O’Steen had gotten through the academy and was fully certified.

The cost of attending the academy, he added, was covered by the Hope grant but the city takes up part of the $3,500 cost.

West Point is by no means alone in having a less-than-fully-staffed police department. Many other cities are having the same problem.

“The pool of law enforcement officers is shrinking,” Carter said. “Many officers are getting out of the business because of what they are up against. Officers are always held to a higher standard. A cell phone video of a shooting can be out on social media before the shell casings are taken off the ground. These videos don’t show the conflict that led up to the shooting.”

“Are there bad officers? Carter asked. “Yes. Are there good officers making bad decisions? Yes.”

Carter said that at a traffic stop, an officer is under more risk than the person stopped. The person being pulled over can help this situation by having both hands in plain view on top of the steering wheel and making no sudden motions inside the car.

“Don’t reach for something if a policeman is approaching from the back,” Carter suggests.

Something so innocent looking as a cell phone can be a threat to an officer.

Carter said that some cell phones are being altered into .38-caliber pistols, capable of deadly fire.

Standard Glock pistols are common on today’s streets and they can be altered into rapid-fire guns. Widely available devices when placed on the gun can turn it into a machine pistol. A gunman can pull the trigger and hold it down and fire every bullet in the chamber.

It’s against the law to have such a device on the gun. In Georgia it’s legal to have these devices, just don’t have them on the gun. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) sees it differently.

“I prefer the ATF standard,” Carter said, “but Georgia sees it differently.”

Carter said that gang-inspired activity is a problem now on the I-85 corridor between East Alabama and Newnan.

“We are partnering with other departments and sharing information on this,” he said.

Arrests have recently been made in shooting incidents in West Point that may be gang-related.

While these situations may not involve gangs in the conventional sense, they do appear to involve rival cliques. Any kind of armed violence is a threat to the community at large.

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