Herbert Turner Jenkins (1907-1990) was born to Gordon (1887-1932) and Jennie Jenkins (1888-1978) in Lithonia, Georgia. The Jenkins family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1924, where Jenkin's father joined the police force. Jenkins was married to Margie Mason Jenkins (1905-1987), with whom he had two sons, James Sage (1935-2012) and Herbert T. Jenkins, Jr (1931-2005). From 1924-1931, Jenkins worked at the West End Ford Shop, where he also taught new car owners how to drive. Jenkins, the son and grandson of police officers, joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1931. His early years on the police force included serving as the official driver of Mayor James L. Key and as a member of the police motorcycle squad. He rose to the rank of captain in 1945, and Mayor William B. Hartsfield appointed him chief of police on February 2, 1947. During his tenure, the Atlanta Police Department hired its first African American officers in 1948, and its first women officers in 1957.

In 1967, Jenkins was the only southerner named by President Lyndon Johnson to the National Advisory Council on Civil Disorders (known as the Kerner Commission). Jenkins also served as president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and as special advisor to the United States Justice Department on civil rights. In 1972, Jenkins retired from the Atlanta Police Department and was named police chief emeritus for life. He went on to help organize the Fulton County Police Department in 1975 and to serve as a senior research associate of the Center for Research in Social Change at Emory University from 1973 to 1983.