History of the Spalding County Junior Deputy Program and the Annual Washington D.C. Trip

(Click here for the Jr. Deputy Page)

    In 1920 the AAA Automobile Association started the School Safety Patrol. The program came to Georgia in the early 1940's and in 1948 Chief Joe Burson and others members of the Griffin Police Department organized the program in Griffin. On May 10th, 1948, the Griffin News reported that the PD expected to have 125 members in the program. At the very beginning, Girls were not members of the (SSP), only boys, and this was before integration of the public school system in Georgia, so the white and black students were separated. After a couple of years, girls were added to the program. In 1949 the (SSP) made the first trip to Washington D.C. The group traveled to Atlanta by bus then boarded a train for Baltimore Maryland. They visited the Naval Academy then traveled to Washington D.C. for the rest of the sight-seeing trip. The group always went to Washington during a week long celebration for the School Safety Patrol. The event ended with a parade that included all of the (SSP)'s who were visiting that week. Each state's (SSP) were dressed in the own state colors, Georgia's were light blue shirts and white trousers or skirts. There were approximately 35,000 to 40,000 total in the parade.

    Chief Joe Burson was elected Sheriff in 1952 and continued to run the program. In 1952, Troopers Bill Harrison and Dwayne Gilbert were ask to assist the Sheriff's office with the annual trip to Washington. Gilbert would continued to help with the trip until 1958. In 1955 the Sheriff's Office chose to make the trip to Washington by Greyhound and has continued to make the trip by bus since that time. Dwayne Gilbert was elected Sheriff in 1960 and continued to sponsor the trip until 1978. In the 1960's Police agencies began using uniform police to regulate traffic at school crossings and the (SSP) became obsolete. Sheriff Gilbert took the SSP and organized the Spalding County Junior Deputy Program and the trip was to continue for the sixth grade students. The program continues to grow each year with other community activities for the students.

    We completed our 71st trip in May of 2019. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the trip in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we plan to resume the trip as soon as conditions allow. We can't wait to see everyone on our next trip!