Atlanta Police Department records
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of annual reports, correspondence, receipts, rules and regulations, reports, training materials, daily assignments, special orders, and other documents relating to the Atlanta Police Department’s operations. The bulk of the collection is comprised of annual reports that include letters from the Chief of Police, crime statistics, organizational charts, achievements, memoriams, and information about APD’s six patrol zones. In addition, the police reports detail incidents that include lost and found property, confiscated money, narcotics, and robberies. Also featured within the collection are lists of prisoners’ valuables that were held in the Chief of Police’s safe, receipts concerning confiscated alcohol given to Grady Memorial Hospital, and correspondence of Clarence C. Brooks (1895-1938), a former secretary of the Chief of Police.
Dates
- 1848-2023, undated
Creator
- Atlanta (Ga.). Police Department (Organization)
- Policemen's Relief Association (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
- Georgia Police Academy (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. All requests to publish, quote, or reproduce must be submitted through the Kenan Research Center.
Biographical / Historical
In July 1873, the City of Atlanta’s Board of Police Commissioners established the Atlanta Police Department (APD) with 26 officers and elected Thomas Jones as its first Chief of Police. By 1918, APD transitioned from mounted patrols and patrol wagons to motorized vehicles. That same year, APD appointed the first two women officers to its force, and in 1924, developed a Women’s Bureau.
In 1948, Chief of Police Herbert Turner Jenkins (1907-1990) swore in APD’s first eight African American officers and formed a “Negro Police” unit that were assigned to street duty with limited arresting capabilities until 1962. The department became fully integrated in 1969. APD appointed George Napper (1939-2020), the first African American Chief of Police, in 1978 and later appointed Beverly J. Harvard (1950- ) in 1994 as the first African American woman Chief of Police.
In 2003, Atlanta was one of the first cities to establish a Homeland Security Unit. The Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement agencies accredited the APD in 2005, and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police provided state certification in 2013.
Extent
13.78 linear ft. (nine oversize boxes, seven document cases, and one oversize folder)
Language
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged alphabetically by titles supplied by staff.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, undated, with subsequent additions
Bias in Description
As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information. We choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not accurately convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. In working with this collection, we often re-use language used by the former owners of the material. This language provides context but often includes bias and prejudices reflective of the time in which it was created. The Kenan Research Center’s work is ongoing to implement reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete.
Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or descriptions, please let us know by emailing reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.
Processing Information
This collection was reprocessed in 2026.
- Atlanta (Ga.). Police Department
- Crime -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Crime prevention--Georgia--Atlanta
- Criminal procedure -- Georgia -- Fulton County
- Law enforcement -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Police -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Police -- Personnel management -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
- Police chiefs -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Police training -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Policemen's Relief Association (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Public safety -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Title
- Atlanta Police Department records
- Subtitle
- ahc.MSS660
- Author
- Ariana Lee
- Date
- January 2026
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository