ATLANTA — Rep. Bill Hitchens is unlikely to introduce another speaker that he knows as well as the deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. 

Hitchens went so far as to recite the law enforcement official's high school batting average before presenting him to Effingham Day at the Capitol participants at the James H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building on Feb. 1.

“Probably, most importantly, he’s my wife’s favorite person,” Hitchens said before welcoming his son, Lt. Col. William “Billy” Hitchens III,to the podium. “We’ve got one son and three daughters and my daughters call him ‘The King.’ ”

Hitchens III, a 1990 Effingham County High School graduate, isn’t a royal but he is an important Georgia figure. In addition to his leadership role with the Department of Public Safety (DPS), he is the field operations manager for the Georgia State Patrol.

 “There are a lot of things that we do (in the Department of Public Safety) that y’all probably don’t know we do,” he said. 

Hitchens III, a second-general state trooper appointed deputy commissioner in October 2020, then recounted the history of his agencies. He joined the Georgia State Patrol in 1994.

“In the 1930s, rising fatalities and crashes on the roadways became so untenable that Gov. (Eurith D.) Rivers decided that he needed to start a highway patrol,” Hichens III said. “He tried several times to get that done. When we ran for governor on a platform to create a state patrol in 1937 by House Bill 18, that was done.

“Within DPS, which is what we are — that’s the mother agency — there was a Georgia State Patrol, (Georgia Bureau of Investigations) and Driver Services. Obviously that has been separated. They are not in the agency now.”

House Bill 18 called for the Georgia State Patrol to start with no less than 80 troopers.

“Think about that,” Hitchens III said. “We have a very big state — if any drives across it. Eighty people really aren’t covering that very well.

“(The troopers) worked long hours and they traveled long distances.”

Initially, the troopers stood for reappointment every three years.

“I’m glad that’s gone,” he said. “I have kind of a secure job working for the government.”

Three thousand people applied for the original 80 openings. 

“You had to be 5-foot-10 and at least 155 pounds,” Hitchens III added.

The first troopers didn’t have radios.

“They devised a flag system so, if you rode by a gas station or something and they raised the flag, the trooper knew to stop in,” Hitchens III said. “They had a message — either to call the post or tell them about a crash. It wasn’t a quick response like you see today where you call 911, they call you on the radio and then they know (about crashes or other dangers.

“They implemented the flag system and it worked for a long time.”

Hitchens III said the first Georgia State Patrol posts were houses. They were required to have bedrooms so that the troopers could rest.

“It’s an interest fact,” he said. “... we still have housing in all our buildings. That is a nice perk for us when you send somebody across the state for an event or a detail.

“They have somewhere they can actually stay. They can state in the barracks. They all have kitchens and bathrooms, and things like that.”

Today, the DPS consists of the Georgia State Patrol, Motor Carrier Compliance and Capitol Police.

“We started out with 80. Right now, we have approximately 766 troopers that work the state,” Hitchens III said. “There are 232 Motor Carrier Compliance Division officers and 22 Capitol police (officers), and 124 dispatchers the dispatch for us, (the Department of Natural Resources) and several other agencies. (The Department of Revenue) is coming on board.

“We are not where should be manpower-wise but our folks to a tremendous job in what they do. Just like those troopers of old, they get the job done before they go home.”

Hitchens III said the Georgia State Patrol’s main responsibilities are traffic control and traffic investigations. It also has a role in the recovery from natural disasters and provides security for special situations when called upon by the governor.

Motor Carrier Compliance performs commercial vehicle inspections and the Capitol police provide security at state buildings.

The Georgia State Patrol has an aviation unit with 12 helicopters. They are used in search-and-rescue missions or mission persons cases.

“We also have a SWAT team,” Hitchens III said. “We send them out. They can do tremendous work. They are a full-time SWAT team.”

There is also a Georgia State Patrol dive team available to help law enforcement agencies even in other states.

 Hitchens III added that the Georgia State Patrol will soon move into a new a badly needed $54 million headquarters.

“We are still in a building that was built in 1957,” he said. “I don’t know how long it’s been but it’s been my whole career that you couldn’t drink the water.”

In closing, Hitchens III passes along a few words from Department of Public Safety Commissioner Chris Wright.

“We don’t have a big pool of people coming into law enforcement right now,” Hitchens III said. “The pool has shrunk. It’s hard for us to recruit.

“One of the things that we ask is that we do get support from our community.”

Hitchens III expressed gratitude that Effingham County is an exception to the anti-law enforcement sentiment that is pervasive in many places.

“We see that from our troopers,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many meals that we’ve had brought to us by citizens. It’s been more in the last two years than I’ve had my whole career.

“That means a lot to our people. It shows that what they are doing means something to the public and we want to say ‘thank you’ for that.”