The Sandy Springs Police Department started the Police Chaplain Program in 2008 to meet the needs of the department and the community. The Chaplain Program is comprised of members of the faith-based community in Sandy Springs who serve full-time roles at their specific religious organization. Chaplains do many different things to assist the Sandy Springs Police Department and community, with some of those responsibilities including providing counsel to police department employees, liaison with other religious leaders in the community, and various other public relations efforts. Chaplains accomplish these responsibilities through ride-alongs with officers, representing the department at public events, and through one-on-one time with department employees and members of the community.
Rabbi Spike Anderson was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York City in 2008. As part of his seminary training, he served as an Interfaith Chaplain at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, NH. His first pulpit was at Stephen S. Wise synagogue in Los Angeles. He has been the Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Sandy Springs since 2015 and has served as Police Chaplain for the SSPD since 2018.
Chaplain Justin Garrell was ordained into the gospel ministry in August of 2017. He has served as a children’s youth and assistant pastor in North Carolina for five years and assists churches with pulpit supply. Currently, he works for FEMA as a Support Branch Director, providing logistics support when a disaster strikes the Southeast U.S. Additionally, he serves as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserves for the 92nd Chemical Battalion in Decatur, GA. Chaplain Garrell holds his endorsement as a Law Enforcement and Military Chaplain from Liberty Baptist Fellowship in Lynchburg, VA. In his free time, you can find him training for his next half marathon, hiking, and whitewater rafting in North Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, and the western North Carolina mountains. He is actively involved at Passion City Church in Atlanta.
For more information about the chaplain program, please contact Detective I. Tomlin at itomlin@sandyspringsga.gov