DUBLIN, Ga. — The City of Dublin has now approved their new police chief. Keith Moon has been serving as the interim chief since May when former Chief Tim Chatman stepped down.
Moon has almost 30 years of experience in law enforcement. Moon started with Dublin in 1998 as a patrolman before being promoted to corporal, sergeant, and then lieutenant.
Moon says becoming chief has always been his dream.
"Law enforcement for me has already been about the people and the interaction with people, and that's what made me love this job," Moon said.
His main goals are support and safety of the officers and creating connections with the community.
"I think it is very important and I think it breaks down a lot of barriers when we sit down and talk. We don't have to agree on everything," Moon said.
Another goal is to increase training for his officers.
"We just have to really revamp our training," Moon said.
Moon says law enforcement unfortunately is slow to react to shifts in culture.
"I think we need to be faster about that. We really need to concentrate on critical incident training," Moon said.
He says communication starts with the patrol division.
"The fact of the matter is about 85% of the time, we are just out there mediating, communicating, trying to resolve issues with people. Even sometimes people call us because we're their sounding board," Moon said.
Moon also says his stance is that the community gives officers their legitimacy, which is why it's so important for them to work together.
"Instill in the officers that we have to hold ourself to a different level. All these projects that we talk about, we have to have a community buy-in before we can go forward with it," Moon said.
Moon says one project he's working on is getting new computer systems for patrol vehicles by the end of the year.