Valdosta Police Department Report:

Saturday morning, March 18, 2018 while off-duty in East Point Georgia, Valdosta Police Officer Shantaya Herring, a veteran of the police department since 2007, was with her boyfriend at a sports bar in East Point, Georgia. While at the bar, Herring’s boyfriend was involved in a scuffle with bar security and an East Point Police Officer who was working off-duty security at the bar. During the scuffle, the East Point Police Officer attempted to arrest the boyfriend and reported that Herring interfered with the arrest. Subsequently, Herring was arrested and charged with Obstruction of a Law Enforcement Officer.

Saturday, March 18, 2018, Chief Brian Childress was notified of the arrest and Herring was contacted and placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. That same day, an internal affairs investigation was initiated and the police department notified the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council that Herring had been arrested pursuant to POST Rules.

On Thursday, after reviewing the internal affairs investigation and incident report from the East Point Police Department, Herring was fired for violating several police department policies to include Conducting Unbecoming a Valdosta Police Officer and Failure to Conformance with Laws.

“Although I am deeply disappointed in the conduct of my officer, I am proud of the East Point Police Department for two reasons: they treated a Police Officer like anyone else and for notifying my department of the incident. As I have said before, we are not perfect, we will always police our own, and we will be honest with our community when we make mistakes”, stated Chief Brian Childress.