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Office of the Chief of Police
As Chief of Police, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our website. As you tour these pages, I hope you learn more about the services we provide and the professional police staff that serve you.
Our Department was the 48th police department to receive national CALEA accreditation. The accreditation process is an ongoing effort to ensure that we meet professional standards and national best practices for law enforcement agencies; and that we continuously strive to improve our performance standards and the services we provide to our citizens.
Our Department also embraces the concepts of the 21st Century Policing Plan and we recognize that our success lays in the ongoing support and trust built from the community we serve. For that reason, we open our department to you. I invite you to review strategic plans, policies, our 21st Century Policing Plan, and the assessments we conduct to track the progress of our efforts.
About The Chief:
Cleveland Lee Spruill Sr. was appointed Chief of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department on February 4, 2019. Prior to his appointment in Athens-Clarke County, Chief Spruill served as the Huntersville, North Carolina chief of police. Between May 2014 and January 2019, he led the 111 member (102 sworn and 9 civilian) Huntersville Police Department, in a town encompassing an area of 62 square miles, with a population of 60,000 and an annual police budget exceeding $12.8 million.
Before becoming the Huntersville chief, Spruill served on the Alexandria, Virginia Police Department for nearly 27 years. In his final assignment with the Alexandria Police, Cleveland served as the Executive Deputy Chief, managing more than 320 sworn and 105 civilian employees, with an annual police budget that exceeded $57 million and serving a population of more than 150,000. Spruill retired from the Alexandria Police Department in 2014 to become the Chief in Huntersville.
Spruill was born in Queens, New York, in 1964 and relocated with his family to Richmond, Virginia in 1978. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was assigned to the prestigious 3rd U.S. Infantry Battalion at Ft. Myer, Virginia. He was honorably discharged in 1986 and the following year joined the Alexandria Police Department.
Chief Spruill is a graduate of the 217th Session of the FBI National Academy for Law Enforcement Executives in 2004, and of the University of Richmond Robins School of Business Professional Executive Leadership School in 2002. In 2012 he completed the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police. Chief Spruill earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master’s degree, both in Business Management from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Cleveland is a member of the Police Executive Research Forum, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.
Throughout his nearly 32-year police career serving Alexandria, Huntersville and Athens-Clarke County, Chief Spruill has established a reputation as a reformer and change agent. He has demonstrated the ability to use tenets of 21st Century Policing along with intelligence–led strategies, to effectively use limited police resources to reduce crime and enhance quality of life, while at the same time, building trust and strengthening community relationships with law enforcement.