GSP Announces First Female Captain
NEWS RELEASE 2004
GEORGIA STATE PATROL PROMOTES FIRST FEMALE TO CAPTAIN
(ATLANTA) - The Georgia State Patrol achieved another historic milestone August 16 when the first female Captain assumed her new duties. Colonel Bill Hitchens, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, announced the promotion of Dublin resident Soffie Thigpen at a news conference the day before in Atlanta. At the news conference, Colonel Hitchens introduced Captain Thigpen and noted the historic promotion by ceremoniously removing her Lieutenant rank bars from her uniform and replacing them with her new Captain bars.
With the promotion, Captain Thigpen now holds the distinction of being the first female in the 70-year history of the Georgia State Patrol to attain the rank of Captain, making her the highest ranking female on the GSP. Captain Thigpen will be the Department of Public Safety's liaison to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and Georgia Homeland Security. Her new duties will include serving as the point of contact for Department resources in the event of a natural or man-made disaster that requires equipment or personnel. She will also be responsible for overseeing the Department's Emergency Preparedness Plan and will be the Department of Public Safety representative in the State Operations Center in the event of an emergency.
In announcing the promotion, Colonel Hitchens said Captain Thigpen's experience as a field trooper in Dublin and Atlanta coupled with her experience as a training instructor for both firearms and driving qualified her for the promotion. "Captain Thigpen has demonstrated the leadership qualities we look for in candidates for promotion," Colonel Hitchens said. "She has been a pioneer in many areas of law enforcement during her career, including helping to develop training for every trooper in the Pursuit Intervention Technique, establishing a mobile driving simulator training program for troopers, and working to build the GSP Motorcycle Unit."
Colonel Hitchens noted that emergency planning and preparedness have been placed at the forefront since September 11, 2001. "It is critical that the person responsible for an agency's emergency response in a crisis be a leader who has a vast array of training as well actual field experience," he said. "I am confident in Captain Thigpen's abilities and leadership skills so the Georgia State Patrol can provide the best response to assist the citizens of Georgia in an emergency."
Captain Thigpen comes to the position of GEMA/Homeland Security Liaison after serving for almost three years as Assistant Troop Commander for the Georgia State Patrol's Troop C which includes the GSP posts in Atlanta, Forest Park, and Kennesaw, as well as the GSP Motorcycle Unit and the Nighthawks DUI Task Force. She joined the Georgia State Patrol in 1983 as a Trooper Cadet at GSP Donalsonville and graduated with the 59th Georgia State Patrol Trooper School in August 1984. She patrolled out of Post 20, Dublin from 1984 until transferring to Executive Security for Governor Joe Frank Harris in 1989. She returned to field operations at GSP Atlanta in 1991, and from 1994 until 1997 she worked in the Implied Consent Unit which maintains law enforcement breath testing equipment across the state. From 1997 until 2004, she was a Training Instructor for the Georgia State Patrol and earned the rank of Corporal in 1998. In July, 2000, she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and two years later attained the rank of Sergeant First Class.
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