The Traffic Specialist Unit (T.S.U.) of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office was developed in June 2001. Sheriff Paxton felt there was a need for a specially trained team to investigate serious injury crashes and fatal traffic crashes that occur within Forsyth County. Litigation often follows serious injury crashes and fatal traffic crashes; therefore, it is essential that trained professionals conduct these investigations. The Traffic Specialist Unit is also responsible for investigating Hit & Run crashes that occur within Forsyth County.

Corporal David Garrison and Investigator Ron Tomblin are assigned to the Traffic Specialist Unit. These two career lawmen have over 35 years of combined law enforcement experience and have attended over 4000 hours of P.O.S.T. certified training. Combined, they have over 1700 hours of specialized traffic related training. Investigator Tomblin has specialized training in Pedestrian/Bicycle Crash Investigations and Commercial Vehicle Crash Investigations. Corporal Garrison is a P.O.S.T Certified Instructor, RADAR Instructor and a LIDAR Speed Detection Instructor.

The Traffic Specialist Unit has proven to be an asset to our agency. Since the inception of the Traffic Specialist Unit they have investigated over 96 fatal crashes and over 1200 Hit and Run crashes.

The Traffic Specialists are equipped with numerous state of the art pieces of equipment. The unit utilizes the “Sokkia Total Station”, which is used to map a crash or crime scene to scale; and a “Vetronix Crash Data Retrieval System”, which retrieves crash data from an air bag module of a vehicle. This equipment was purchased with drug seizure funds at no expense to taxpayers.


To contact the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Specialist Unit, call Sgt. Chris Shelton at 770-205-4631 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .