DeKalb County CEO appoints Carina Swain as E-911 director

DeKalb County government CEO Michael Thurmond appointed a new E-911 director for the county.

On Thursday, county officials announced Carina Swain would be stepping into the new role as DeKalb’s E-911 director after most recently working as a shift manager for E-911 communications with the Atlanta Police Department.

DeKalb officials said Swain has more than 16 years of experience working as a public safety professional, having worked with APD and Fulton County Emergency Services.

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Swain began working for DeKalb County in December 2023, championing a new starting salary of $46,800 for new employees, which the county said was among the highest in the state.

Officials said she also has worked to recruit and hire 23 E-911 operators and realign schedules to handle incoming emergency calls while maintaining triple overtime pay for staff.

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“Director Swain has been tasked with replacing our antiquated E-911 phone system with state-of-the-art emergency call technology,” CEO Thurmond said. “She is leading the post-pandemic effort to reorganize the department, increase staffing and salaries, and reduce emergency call wait times.”

Under Swain’s leadership, DeKalb County is also installing a new $5 million “state of the art” E-911 phone system, intended to “significantly reduce the number of non-emergency calls to E-911 by prescreening and triaging all calls prior to callers speaking to an operator.”

Additionally, the county said Swain is hiring a public education specialist to help teach the public about when to use E-911.

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