Asst. Chief Walker finishes Chief Executive Training

With 29 years in law enforcement, Walker is no stranger to training. He has been with Blairsville PD since 2001 and is himself an officer trainer. He transitioned to assistant chief in 2024 after former assistant chief Shawn Dyer left the department for his new job as county sheriff.

But the Chief Executive Training Program offers advanced leadership training that has taken things to the next level for Walker, making him a better right-hand man for Blairsville Police Chief Michael “Bear” Baxter.

“It’s basically school for chiefs of police, and being assistant chief, I have a lot of the same duties as (Chief Baxter),” Walker said. “So, this makes it easier for us to work together.”

Course topics included the Police Chief’s Role and Responsibilities, Engaging in Community and Media Relations, Directing the Hiring Process, Developing Policies, Leadership and Management, Budgeting, Evaluating and Documenting Employee Performance, Risk Management and more.

As noted above, Walker has been a steady hand at Blairsville PD for many years, providing extensive public service experience in the city.

A Union County native, he joined the U.S. Army at 17 and spent several years away before coming home at the request of then-Union County Sheriff David Atkins. Walker came aboard UCSO as a deputy in 1997 and worked there four years before transitioning to Blairsville PD.

But Walker’s public safety roots go back to childhood. His grandfather, Hughes Chatham, was the Emergency Management Agency Director and Fire Chief in Union County for more than 30 years, and Walker was immersed in that environment growing up.

Due to his background, Walker always knew he wanted to enter first response, but after the military, he wasn’t sure which area to pursue. While living in Athens, he worked security at St. Mary’s Hospital, which wound up proving fateful in light of Sheriff Atkins’ eventual job offer.

“I liked it,” Walker said about the hospital security gig. “It didn’t take long to figure out that I might want to get into this full-time and make law enforcement a career. And that’s what I did – I went into law enforcement as opposed to the fire or EMS side.”

Walker actually joined Blairsville PD just a couple weeks after Chief Baxter, so the two have been working together for the better part of three decades: “It’s second nature – we know how each other thinks, and we take advantage of that, which works out well for us,” Walker said.

For his part, Chief Baxter said the department was “very fortunate to have Rusty on our staff,” and that the advanced leadership training was beneficial to the city and Walker alike.

“You should always have the best leadership you can, and with the executive leadership training he received, he can be a chief anywhere in Georgia now,” Baxter said. “It’s important that our command staff get that kind of training so they’re ready to tackle anything, like if something were to happen to me or any other circumstances.”

The training and his previous acceptance of the assistant chief promotion have been part of a natural progression for Walker based on his inclination toward public service and his history with the department. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“They say if you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life,” Walker said. “I am the prime example of that because, to me, this is life – this is fun.”

Not much has changed for Walker since becoming assistant chief. The job is still fun, and as a smaller department, officers here wear multiple hats, so he still goes on patrol and responds to calls, though he does have more responsibilities in terms of input on budgeting, personnel decisions, etc.

One thing Walker loves about being part of a small agency is the closeness a department develops with their community. He particularly enjoys the partnerships that have resulted in a wildly successful program that makes a real difference in the lives of local children.

“Sometimes, law enforcement is viewed as an adversarial role,” Walker said. “You’re enforcing laws against the public, and that, by nature, causes contention. And while we aggressively enforce laws, the difference with the Blairsville Police Department is that we rely on our community, and we try to give back.”

To put that give-back into perspective, Blairsville PD has seven officers right now, each of whom facilitate the department’s annual Shop With A Cop Program. It’s a massive effort – especially for such a small agency – that involves taking over 150 kids shopping for Christmas.

“We do more with our Shop With A Cop Program to help our community than larger agencies,” Walker said. “You can look at DeKalb or Gwinnett or Cobb – huge metro agencies – and I don’t think they have the impact on their communities that we do, just with that one program.

“So, we give back to our community in cooperation with our community, and none of that happens without the members of the public. We take donations, and every dime of it goes to Shop With A Cop … and you notice that, people talk about that in our community.”

Indeed, Walker said protecting and serving the particularly pro-law enforcement residents of Blairsville is the most rewarding part of his job, tied only with the forging of familial bonds between members of local law enforcement and other first responder agencies.