WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is pleased to feature the South Fulton (GA) Police Department (SFPD) as its “Community Policing in Action” Photo Contest winner for September 2021.

The winning photo captures a touching moment between SFPD Lieutenant Nick Williams and a young resident of South Fulton. “It was a perfect moment,” said Williams. The little boy had shyly approached to say he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up, so Williams deputized him with a gold foil badge, declaring him “officer for the day.” After congratulating him with a fist bump, Williams told the child that his job as officer for the day was to serve his community.

Williams is an officer in the SFPD’s Special Services Unit, and a strong proponent of community policing. “Everybody needs help sometimes. This is what community policing is all about to me, helping one another.”

View the winning photo on the COPS Office website, as well as on the COPS Office’s official Twitter profile and Facebook page. SFPD’s commitment to community policing and its dedication to protecting members of the South Fulton community are also chronicled in the September 2021 edition of the COPS Office e-newsletter, the Community Policing Dispatch.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 134,000 officers.

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