Officer Accuses Dispatchers Of Tipping Suspects

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has cleared two Lincoln County dispatchers who had been accused of tipping off criminal suspects that the police had been running their license plates.

An internal sheriff’s office investigation and the GBI report both concluded that Lt. David Stevens misunderstood statements made by the suspects when they were pulled over, and filed the complaint without obtaining sufficient facts.

The two dispatchers were identified as Adrienne Elam and Hitasca Wynn.

According to Stevens’ complaint and investigation documents, the incident began when Stevens telephoned one of the women for registration information on a vehicle. The dispatcher provided the information and Stevens and another officer then went on the street.

Some time later, the two officers stopped the vehicle they had earlier run. During the car stop, the suspect’s cellular phone rang.

According to Stevens’ complaint, “The person on the other end, who said she was (the suspect’s) sister, told the passenger…that we had run the tag earlier. I talked to the sister, and she said the same thing to me. When I asked her who said I run the tag earlier, she stated that she wasn’t going to tell me who called her.”

Stevens alleged, “The tag was run over the phone and not broadcasted over the net. The only people who had access to this information were the two female dispatchers in 911, Investigator Hudson Bell, and myself.”

Comm center director Ernie Doss received Stevens’ complaint, and then told a supervisor to investigate the allegations. The supervisor interviewed the dispatchers and listened to logging tapes. The investigation, “did not support Lt. Steven’s allegation,” Doss said.

Doss and county commission chair Walker Norman also contacted the district attorney’s office to request a GBI investigation of the allegations.

The GBI everyone involved with the incident, Doss reported, including the suspect’s sister and those in the vehicle. “All three denied knowing anyone in 911, and all three denied receiving a call from anyone prior to or after the traffic stop concerning any information about sheriff’s office activities.”

More to the point, the Doss said, “The female, who spoke to Lt. Stevens on the phone during the traffic stop, reported that she had been told by one of the men in the car that an unmarked police car had closely followed the subject’s car earlier in the evening, and she told Lt. Stevens that she wondered why he didn’t pull the car over then,” Doss continued.

Apparently the sister was referring to a previous encounter with the police, not Stevens’ previous request to run the vehicle’s registration.

“The entire event seems to be based on a misunderstanding and a rush to judgment on the part of Lt. Stevens,” Doss said.