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Roswell mayor credits police, federal partners for large drug seizure; touts staffing and public-safety investments
Summary
Mayor Kurt Wilson announced a drug seizure and arrests made with federal partners and highlighted zero sworn officer vacancies, shutdowns of illicit massage parlors, a new public-safety headquarters, and progress toward a full-time fire department.
Roswell, Ga. — Mayor Kurt Wilson on Wednesday announced what he described as a major law-enforcement success: the Roswell Police Department, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, seized more than 15 kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine, which Wilson said were “drugs worth over $750,000,” and arrested two people in connection with the case.
Wilson said officers also “shut down a suspected drug conversion lab, and seized cash, packaging, and chemicals used to traffic drugs in our Roswell community.” He credited the operation to the police department’s partnerships with federal agencies and called it “exactly the kind of proactive policing that keeps our Roswell safe.”
The mayor placed the drug seizure in a broader public-safety theme for the city. “This city government, led by Randy Knighton, and this elected leadership of great city council people, backs that mission with action,” Wilson said, and he emphasized staffing figures he said reflect that approach: Roswell has had “0 sworn officer vacancies” for three years and “we have a 157 badges,” as he described it.
Wilson also said the city has “shut down 23 illicit massage parlors tied directly to human trafficking” and is “making sure they don't come back.” He described a recently built public-safety headquarters located in an area of the city the mayor said has the most 911 calls and said the city is converting the “old sharpshooters facility into a 911 center and training range for police and fire.”
On the fire department, Wilson said the city has moved to a full-time fire department and is in “year 4 of a 5 year transition plan” that he characterized as the first such transition in Roswell history. He added the city has invested in “state of the art technology for our police and our fire.”
Wilson framed those changes as delivered while lowering the tax rate in two of the last three years and not raising it during that period. He urged residents to acknowledge city leadership and staff for those outcomes, saying, “reach out to Mister Knight and his team. The police get a lot of love and they should. The fire department gets a lot of love and they should.”
The mayor named City Administrator Randy Knighton, Chief Conroy, and City Council members Lee Hills (council pro tem), Allen Sells, David Johnson, Will Moreland, Christine Hall and Sarah Beeson as the city leadership he said supported the public-safety agenda.
Wilson did not announce any new ordinances, budget votes or specific funding sources tied to the items he described, nor did he provide documentation for the staffing figures or the drug-seizure valuation during the remarks.
Closing his remarks, Wilson reiterated the central message: “The most important compact of trust, the most important compact of leadership between a people and its government is first to provide safety to their families.”
