By Arielle Robinson
The City of Acworth announced yesterday that Police Chief Wayne Dennard will retire next year and be replaced by former Cobb County Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Jesse Evans.
Dennard has been police chief since 2012 and a longtime active community member.
Evans was previously the lead prosecutor on the Ahmaud Arbery case before he resigned in April last year and was replaced with Senior Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski.
Evans has also worked on other well-known legal cases such as the prosecution of Justin Harris Ross in 2016.
A statement released by the city Wednesday says the following:
During a departmental meeting today, City of Acworth Chief of Police Wayne Dennard announced his intentions to retire from the City of Acworth in April of 2023 and that Cobb County’s former Chief Assistant District Attorney, Jesse Evans has been tapped to fill the role.
In his remarks to the police staff, Dennard acknowledged the great working relationship he has not only with his colleagues at the police department, but with the other city leaders including the elected officials and City Manager, James Albright.
“Because of open and transparent communications between our leadership in the city, succession has been a topic for discussion for several months as I began thinking about my next season in life,” Dennard said.
“It is because of the relationships and selfless love for this community that we enjoy as a team of leaders, that we were able to conclude that it would be in the city’s best interest to begin the process of appointing Acworth’s next Chief of Police well before Dennard’s departure. Realizing that we wanted to continue our upward trajectory of progressive leadership and at the same time bring in a leader who is close to and loves our community, an extraordinary person came to mind,” said City Manager James Albright.
Chief Evans is currently the Chief Assistant District Attorney in Paulding County and will begin his employment with the City of Acworth later this summer. Evans has a long list of accolades and accomplishments since graduating with a Juris Doctorate near the top of his class from Mercer University School of Law in 2000. Evans was recognized by the Marietta Daily Journal as one of the “20 Rising Stars Under 40’ in 2010 and again in 2021, ‘20 in Their 40’s.’
Mayor Tommy Allegood said, “Jesse knows the criminal justice system and procedure better than anyone I know. His leadership skills and team-building experience will take the department that Chief Dennard has developed to the next level of community, inclusiveness, and professionalism. Jesse is a student and teacher of leadership that we cannot wait to tap into for our team. He was raised in the City of Acworth, graduated from North Cobb High School, and will be a natural to step in and lead our police department. He will have such a positive impact on our quality of life!”
City Alderman Tim Houston, who serves as co-liaison for the police department to the Board of Aldermen said, “I think Jesse is a great guy and has great leadership ability, and I am excited to bring him on board. He has some big shoes to fill after Dennard’s departure, but I believe our department will do very well under his leadership.”
Dennard will retain the position of Chief until Evans has completed all State mandates and is sworn in. At that point, Dennard will assume a public safety advisory role to oversee the transition until his retirement from the city.
Arielle Robinson is a student at Kennesaw State University. She also freelances for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and is the former president of KSU’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists as well as a former CNN intern. She enjoys music, reading, and live shows.
There goes Allegood talking about that “quality of life” in Acworth again. What a complete clod this man is. The mayor of Acworth only cares about your quality of life if you fall into a tax bracket that he finds worthy. If not then you are just another pawn in the Acworth game of greed.
You are soooo right! Sent him an email last year complaining about the fireworks in
my neighborhood being too loud past 2:00 am in the morning, and he didn’t want to have
nothing to do with replying back to me! He sent it straight to Chief Dennard and said
‘Give her the condense version” In other words, he didn’t want to be bothered!
Well? I couldn’t have said it better than CBeck… if you want to experience life without civil rights or something like Nazi Germany if your Jewish… move on down to Henry CT in Acworth and watch how these officers violate your civil rights, threaten to arrest you for exercising then and then treat like toilet paper! Disorderly conduct is their most used charge against law abiding citizens that don’t quite make the financial status in Acworth City! Scum of the world they are…don’t get me started on that crooked wanna be actor DA or solicitor out there too… that man will straight lie to your face to get you to do what he wants so you end up paying Acworth a fine of a minimum $250. Just scum!
Great article. Strange appointment.
Congratulations Jesse Evans:
It is curious why one of The ‘Cobb Justice Machines’ great rising stars would just suddenly resign. There must be more to the story? I thought I read somewhere that Mr . Evans was subpoenaed as a witness in the Arbery case?
If true , Mr . Jesse must have very much wanted to avoid the witness stand considering the close relationship between Cobb & Glynn counties .
God bless
This town( Acworth Ga) was once a sweet small town when we moved here 20+ yrs ago, to now being
a big city with traffic problems, rude idiots driving right on your bumper, to rotten attitudes
in most of the stores here! That mayor is always harping on quality of life, only if you’re RICH!