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Thomasville Police, District Attorney's Office exchange letters

Thomasville Police, District Attorney's Office exchange letters
Thomasville Police, District Attorney's Office exchange letters
Posted at 4:39 PM, Apr 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-23 13:47:55-04

THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WTXL) - Letters exchanged between the Thomasville Police Department and the Thomas County District Attorney's Office detail a partnership the DA's Office is calling 'dysfunctional.'

The names in the case files have been redacted but flipping through this request, you can see cases dating back to 2016.

The Police Department calling that list "by far inaccurate," giving the appearance that these case files have not been submitted, arguing that they have.

The district attorney's office says this is the updated list. They say all of those case files listed, they do not have, which is slowing down the judicial process.

According to this letter, for the past year, the Police Department CID has seen an increase in case file requests from the district attorney's office.

Those requests aren't the issue but the timing in which they are submitted seems to be the issue both sides are debating. According to police they admit some case files have been late and are working to rectify that.

The letter states "We have been advised in the past to "slow down on case files. Don't worry about that due date, we have plenty to do."

Now knowing there is an issue, the CID investigators say they are changing their procedure of not worrying about the due date to submitting case files in a reasonable time.

In a response to the Police Department's initial letter, the Thomas County DA's office says they often receive what they call "nastygram" or "hate mail" in response to case report requests from all law enforcement departments they deal with.

So they often tell the officers "We've got plenty to do, maybe you all need to slow down on making cases."

The DA's office says "For the Thomasville Police Department to now try and use our response in jest to, what we believed, was their comment in jest, is incredulous, using such banter as an excuse for failing to live up to the standards is self-serving and unprofessional."

In the initial letter, TPD outlined that since Jan 1, 2018, TPD CID has submitted 54 case files. They have investigated nearly 290 felony cases since the first of the year, 50 of which were cleared by arrests.

CID commander Maurice Holmes goes on to say that quote "Your cooperation is greatly appreciated in this matter and together we can correct these issues to improve our case file quality and prosecution production."

The department has four detectives.

The DA's response to that was "The TCSO and TTCNVS have similar if not greater numbers of cases in their offices as well. If the case load of TPD is too great of a burden for the detectives assigned to the division, then perhaps the TPD should follow the lead of the TCSO and TTCNVD where supervisors of their units carry caseloads as well."

The DA's office says this problem can't be attributed to investigators, but says it rests with leadership of the department.

Ending their letter with this statement, "We can no longer stand by and watch the citizens of Thomasville and Thomas County, most especially victims, suffer through the dysfunction that has become so evident."

Both departments are wanting to find a solution.

The DA's office says they "hope the situation is rectified before something tragic occurs".